A JUDGE who has found a former Finks bikie guilty of possessing a semi-automatic rifle says it's a reasonable inference that another man was responsible for the gun.
But as the evidence for both scenarios was evenly balanced "at most", Judge Sidney Tilmouth said South Australian firearm laws meant Mark Andrew Sandery was deemed to be in possession of the rifle.
Sandery, 41, told his District Court trial that he had no knowledge of the gun which police found on December 20, 2011, on a coffee table at a Semaphore home leased by him.
But the judge found him guilty on Thursday of possessing the rifle without a licence and possessing a gun while a firearm prohibition order was in place.
Sandery's young son was shot in the leg in a home invasion at the Semaphore address in September 2011.
The family moved out and Sandery then lived most of the time in Melbourne but sometimes in a unit near the home.
Sandery was not in Adelaide when the gun was found, but had paid the rent on the house up until December 22, and had arranged for tradesmen to carry out work in order to hand back the property to the agent.
Another man's fingerprint was found on the rifle and Sandery testified that that man had access to the house.
"There is enough support in the evidence to create the reasonable inference that (the other man) was responsible for the gun and had access to the house," the judge found.
He said there was no doubt Sandery had "control" of the premises, given he had the lease, was removing and selling personal property from the address and organising repairs and painting.
Under SA gun laws, if an accused is found to have control, it is up to him to prove on balance that he didn't know or could not reasonably be expected to know about the firearm.
"Despite the existence of a reasonable doubt as to guilt and of a reasonable hypothesis consistent with innocence," the judge said, Sandery had failed to provide the necessary proof.
Sentencing submissions will be heard on April 22.
