Daniel Mark Foster, 30, of Churchill Street, appeared in the Warrnambool Magistrates Court on Monday and pleaded guilty to 11 offences.

The charges included being a prohibited person possessing a firearm, possessing ammunition without a licence, being an unlicensed person storing ammunition in an insecure manner, cultivating cannabis, using a drug of dependence, obstructing police, two counts of handling stolen goods and three charges of possessing cannabis.

He was convicted, placed on a 12-month community-based order to be assessed and treated as required and to perform 100 hours' work. He was also fined $500.

The court heard that on September 7, 2008, five firearms and ammunition were stolen from a Dennington property.

On September 28 last year a search found ammunition at a Churchill Street home. Images taken on September 11 the previous year, showing Foster with shotguns, were also found on a mobile phone.

On that same date Foster and a co-defendant had been told about the guns and went to a Merrivale address, where they were offered the weapons for $2000 but they decided they were "hot", or stolen, and did not buy them.

Foster was also caught by police in possession of cannabis and a mobile phone contained a photograph of three cannabis plants that he'd grown.

Foster is a prohibited person to have firearms after previous court appearances in Victoria, South Australia and the Northern Territory.

Defence counsel Andrew Tweedly said his client had been trying to overcome a cannabis addiction for the past four years and he was the sole parent of his eight-year-old son.

Magistrate Jonathan Klestadt said Foster faced charges which had a starting point of a jail term and there was a great deal suspicious about some of his activities.

He said it was obvious that Foster had been associating with people with the potential to get him into a lot more trouble.