R v Karnib

[2015] NSWDC 84

District Court

New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation:	R v Karnib [2015] NSWDC 84
Hearing dates:	26 February 2015
Date of orders:	07 May 2015
Decision date:	07 May 2015
Jurisdiction:	Criminal
Before:	Whitford SC DCJ
Decision:	Paragraphs [120] – [122]
Catchwords:	CRIMINAL LAW – Sentence - Conspiracy to import prohibited goods – Firearm parts - Knowing participation in the sale of firearm parts
Category:	Sentence
Parties:	Regina (Crown) Ahmed Karnib (Offender)
Representation:	Counsel: Mr Neil SC (Crown) Mr Boulten SC (Offender)   Solicitors: Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions Elie Rahme & Associates Pty Ltd
File Number(s):	2012/81495

Judgment

1. The offender, Ahmed Karnib, was arrested on 13 March 2012 and subsequently charged with the following two offences, to which he entered pleas of guilty in the Local Court on 28 February 2014, and for which he was on that date committed for sentence to this Court:

2. The first is a Federal offence that he conspired with others, without requisite permission, to import prohibited tier 2 goods, namely, firearm parts and firearm magazines.

3. The other is a State offence alleging that between about 10 November 2011 and about 9 November 2012, at Sydney, he knowingly took part in the sale of a firearm part on three or more separate occasions.

4. The offender appears today for sentence, the matter having been stood over following a sentence hearing on 26 February this year.

5. The facts out of which these charges arise are set out in a Statement of Facts which exceeds 50 pages. It is supplemented by schedules relating to the various imports the subject of the charges and some written submissions on sentence from the Crown, which comprise some 42 additional pages of material. Needless to say, the detail encompassed by those documents cannot sensibly be reproduced in these remarks. I have taken all that material into account and have endeavoured to fairly summarise it in the remarks that follow.

6. In brief, the Statement of Facts describes the activities of a criminal enterprise operating in greater Sydney, New South Wales, which involved at least three known persons, the offender, a co-offender named Andrew Botros, who also appears for sentence today, and a co-accused Khoder El Ali.

7. The offender was employed by Transitainer New South Wales Pty Limited, the local arm of a multinational freight forwarding business which was located on the upper floor at unit 5, 12 to 14 Murrumbidgee Avenue, Sylvania Waters.

8. The co-offender was the licensee and operator of an Australia Post business located on the ground floor of 12 to 14 Murrumbidgee Avenue, downstairs from the office where the offender worked.

9. El Ali was employed as a network technician at SingTel Optus in Macquarie Park, New South Wales.

10. The criminal enterprise was collectively responsible for the progressive importation, between October 2011 and February 2012, of 20 packages, 18 from Germany and two from the USA, which in combination contained 496 prescribed constituent parts for at least 118 complete Glock semiautomatic pistols, 12 partial Glock semiautomatic pistols and also 220 magazines…