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A Queensland tribunal has upheld a police decision to revoke the firearms licence of a sovereign citizen who drove a truck bearing homemade licence plates and who referred to himself as “His Serene Highness”.

The Queensland Police Service cancelled Kent Jenkinson’s firearms licence in 2023, arguing that his sovereign citizen ideologies meant he was not a fit and proper person to own and possess guns.

Police submitted to the tribunal that “the public does not want people with sovereign citizenship ideologies to have possession of a weapon”.

“They cannot be trusted with weapons because they do not recognise authority or the laws of the state.”

Jenkinson appealed against the decision in the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal claiming he was non-violent and “entitled to his political beliefs”.

The tribunal heard evidence related to an interaction between Jenkinson and police in 2023, during which he was questioned about the homemade licence plate on his truck CPO – 01HSH. He said the HSH referred to “His Serene Highness”.

When asked by police about the licence plate, Jenkinson said it was registered with “the human rights and equal opportunity, the pope, the queen, the governor general, the Office of Fair Trading, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Territories in Canberra”.

When asked under cross-examination to explain that statement, Jenkinson made comments to the effect that he had sent documents to all those organisations and that “paperwork was sent away to have that recognised … [I] have not heard anything back as yet.”

He acknowledged the views he expressed during the interaction – including that police were “employed as private security guards for the Queensland Treasury corporation and that they have no legal authority” – were “eccentric”.

The tribunal heard evidence Jenkinson had previously been associated with two men – Des Rowe and Des Hopkins – who are the founders of a group called the Anti-Corruption Academy.

Jenkinson said he had since resiled from some of his views and dissociated from the men because “I do not believe in the way they have gone”.

He argued that he had not previously been accused of any violent behaviour, that he “acknowledges the error of his ways” and has “now fixed an approved registration plate to his truck”.

But under cross-examination Jenkinson maintained that “sovereignty is the way I choose to live … and I believe we are all sovereign citizens”.

The tribunal acknowledged there was no evidence to suggest Jenkinson was a risk to public safety, but found there was a “strong” public interest case to deny him a gun licence.

The decision took into account that Jenkinson had been given an adult caution in 2023 for the unlawful disposal of a firearm.

“The public would, I consider, be concerned that a man holding sovereign citizenship ideologies and who has committed an offence against the Weapons Act might be entrusted with a weapon,” the tribunal found.