Supervising officer approved decision not seize shot man's pistol - Sydney Morning Herald

High noon ... the incident at Castle Hill.

The decision not to punish a serious gun licence breach by Rodney Elkass months before he was killed while allegedly threatening police with a Glock pistol was reviewed and allowed to pass by a supervising police officer and the NSW Firearms registry, a court has heard.

Mr Elkass, 37, a handyman from Granville, died in the front seat of his ute from a gunshot to the head after a brief confrontation with three plain clothes police in Pennant Street, Castle Hill on September 29 last year .

The inquest into his death has heard that, seven months earlier, a regulation police check of Mr Elkass's firearm had revealed he was not keeping it in a gun safe as required by his licence conditions.

Shooting victim ... Rodney Elkass.

The investigating officer, Sergeant Michael Tory, also learned that Mr Elkass then tried to cover this up. But the officer elected not to suspend the man's licence or seize his weapon, even though this was required by law.

On Tuesday, the inquest heard that Sergeant Tory's supervising officer at the time, Senior Constable Michael Musgrave, had reviewed this decision as part of standard protocol, but allowed it to pass.

"The COPS event [computerised record] talks about an inspection being authorised and arranged but that firearm wasn't present," counsel assisting the coroner, Peter Hamill SC, said.

"Looking at it now, does that ring any alarm bells?"

Senior Constable Musgrave replied: "Yes, it does."

"In hindsight I probably should have re-submitted [the decision] to him [Sergeant Tory].

"I believed Constable Tory was going to be following this up."

The inquest also heard that once the decision not to charge Mr Elkass over the gun licence breach was cleared by his supervisor, it then went to the NSW Firearms Registry which also took no action.

A civilian intelligence analyst from the firearms registry, Lawrence Campbell, told the inquest that he recalled a junior bureaucrat expressing her concern to him about the decision not to seize Mr Elkass's gun.

But he said at the time he felt there was nothing he could do because it was not the registry's role to intervene in police investigations.

"It's not our role to give legal advice or to recommend action directly to police officers," Mr Campbell said.

"These sorts of issues are usually something that the supervising sergeant would deal with on review. The superior officer should be the one who takes these things into account."

But the inquest later heard that in cases where it appeared there had been a serious error by police, the registry could contact an officer directly.

Since the shooting, NSW Police has created a new role within the liquor and licensing branch to act as an intermediary between the registry and NSW Police to facilitate better communication.