According to the police, On June 2010, police conducted a search warrant on his premises and found a 12-gauge shot gun, 30 live rounds of 12 gauge ammunition, a chrome .22 revolver, and 167 live rounds of .22mm ammunition.

As a result, Shaw was charged with 2 counts of keeping an unlicensed firearm, and 2 counts of unlicensed ammunition. From the beginning of the search, Shaw never once denied that the firearms and ammunition belonged to him, and when he was charged and brought before Senior Magistrate Frazer, he explained and supplied proof that he once owned a valid gun license, but it had expired. He was represented by attorney Michael Peyrefitte who had submitted throughout the trial that his client should not be treated as though he had broken the law and was in possession of unlicensed firearms and ammunitions.

Peyrefitte further explained that his client had gone through a legal process to receive the gun license, but the problem was that it was no longer valid when the police conducted their search.

Shaw was charged with this offense before the new amendment came into effect last year, but had he been charged under this new amendment, he would have received an automatic custodial sentence.

His attorney urged the court to use the discretion under the old act, which allows the magistrate to consider handing down a fine instead of a custodial sentence.