A man who claimed to be returning tools to Williamtown RAAF Base a decade after he was forced to resign from his job at the Hunter military facility has been found guilty of leaving an object made to look like a bomb at the premises.
Stephen John Raffaeta, 61, was charged last year with one count of leaving a substance to create a false belief of danger.
Raffaeta, a technician at the RAAF base for 32 years before unwillingly leaving his job in 2010, placed a screw driver and jerry can with a box duct-taped to the side containing a gauge - along with an unsigned note - in a carpark about 100 metres from the facility's administration building on the afternoon of September 30, 2020.
The package was reported as a suspected improvised explosive device - major roads were closed and an exclusion zone was put in place while bomb squad police determined - using resources including a robot - that the object was not dangerous.
Raffaeta faced a hearing in January after pleading not guilty to the charge.
He claimed he was returning tools he had kept when his employment at the base finished in 2010.
In handing down his judgement at Raymond Terrace Local Court on Friday, Magistrate Ian Cheetham said that, despite Raffaeta's claims he wanted to return the property to "clear his conscience", the items left in the carpark with an unsigned note were brand new.
He said Raffaeta had said he was afraid of possible consequences if he delivered the items personally to someone on the base.
Magistrate Cheetham said the case was "a very troubling event" and concluded that the package was taped together to intentionally create the false belief that a homemade explosive device had been left at the site - to make staff be concerned for their safety.
Magistrate Cheetham adjourned the matter to April 13 for possible sentencing.
The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years jail. Raffaeta remains on bail.
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