Court fines Agape firearms offender

A man arrested for firearms offences over raids on Agape Ministries premises has been fined $2,000 and released without conviction.

Tony Di Blasio pleaded guilty to acquiring a firearm without a permit and possessing a baton.

Oh noes! Those batons can be deadly. Especially in a relay-race riot.

South Australian police raided several properties associated with the religious group and seized large quantities of weapons and ammunition.

Di Blasio was put on a one-year good behaviour bond by an Adelaide magistrate.

International readers may be confused by ‘firearms offences’, especially those in the gun-luvin’ states of Merka.

Here, in South Australia, it is quite sensibly against the law for those sans adequate reason to possess any sort of firearm, or indeed: any kind of lethal weapon, or an object that is solely designed to harm humans. (Such as a cudgel, or offensive baton)

Call us crazy if you will!

In further news:

TAXPAYERS have been subsidising the activities of the Agape doomsday cult for a decade, tax records show.

Senator Xenophon introduced the legislation following allegations against the Church of Scientology including coerced abortions, false imprisonment stalking, harassment and extortion.

Agape Ministries International was granted charity organisation tax breaks from July 2000 by the Tax Office.

It was stripped of the status last month after police raided its properties around Adelaide and seized 15 allegedly illegal firearms and other weapons.

The issue of the cult’s charity status was raised by an anonymous tip-off to a Senate inquiry into legislation, proposed by SA senator Nick Xenophon, which aims to force religious groups to prove what public benefit they provide before being granted tax breaks.

He said the Agape cult had been enjoying tax breaks for 10 years which showed why it should have to prove that it provided benefits to the public before the Australian Taxation Office granted it charitable institution status.

“You have to ask whether this cult used their tax-exempt status to buys guns and ammo,” he said. It raises the issue of whether we need a public benefit test before religions and charities receive tax cuts.”

Agape Ministries International would reapply for its status as a charitable institution, Mr Caldicott said.