Shotgun and live ammo found in drug dealer and gold stealer Christopher Michael Power’s Boulder home

A convicted drug dealer and gold stealer has avoided additional time behind bars for a shotgun and live ammunition found in his home. Christopher Michael Power was fined in Kalgoorlie Magistrates Court on Thursday for two counts of being an unlicensed person in possession of firearms/ammunition. Police executed a search of the 33-year-old’s home on June 27 2023 and found a shotgun separated into three pieces in pillow cases in the couch, as well as 19 .33-calibre Winchester rounds, one .44-calibre round, and one 12-gauge shotgun cartridge. The shotgun was found to have been stolen in a burglary in 2021. The charges are the latest in a string of offences Power has been sentenced for recently. In June he was handed two years and four months imprisonment in Kalgoorlie District Court for possession of 23g of methamphetamine with intent to sell and supply. A week later he was sentenced to an additional six months imprisonment in the Magistrates Court for stealing more than $9900 worth of gold-bearing material in wheelie bins from the Jubilee gold mine in Feysville. In court on Thursday, Power’s lawyer Aaron Plenderleith told the court the shotgun was not his client’s and had been given to him by someone else to look after for a few days. Mr Plenderleith asked Magistrate Paul Lyons to consider totality in handing down his sentence, highlighting Power was already facing two years and 10 months behind bars for the other offending. Mr Lyons said police found the gun and ammo while Power was on bail for the drug charge, which made it more serious. Not wanting to affect Power’s earliest parole date, Mr Lyons fined him $2500 for the offences, and ordered forfeiture of the gun and destruction of the ammo.