Media release dated 23 May 2019

Snake Snatcher Matthew Gatt, has now twice had applications for an intervention order against Snakeman Raymond Hoser struck out in the Sunshine Magistrates Court.
Gatt executed a well-planned theft of a rare Mutant Carpet Python from a Snakebusters Reptile Show at an Autocult Motor Car Show in Melbourne on 9 December 2018.
Police seized the snake from Gatt’s home 22 days later and charged him with a number of offences. He pled guilty and was convicted and fined $8K at the Melbourne Magistrates Court by magistrate Livingstone on 21 March 2019.
The following day he fronted magistrate Wardell at the Sunshine Magistrate’s Court and sought a personal safety intervention order against Snakeman Raymond Hoser seeking the courts suppress public dissemination of the fact Gatt had been convicted of stealing a snake.
The order he sought was most likely to be used as a further weapon to attack Snakeman Raymond Hoser and his business, as once in place, Gatt would be able to lodge false complaints of breaches with police in order to have Hoser harassed or charged with various breach of order offences.
That Gatt lied in his application to get the order is not unusual in itself, as many criminal types do this when seeking intervention orders to attack others. However what is relatively unusual is that at the time he made his application, the presiding magistrate noted inconsistencies in his application and refused it.
Not content with this loss, Gatt effectively went magistrate shopping and reapplied for an order at the same court in front of another magistrate on 11 April 2019.
At this hearing magistrate Dixon also noted that Gatt had lied in his application.
Gatt had told the magistrate that on 21 March 2019, the magistrate who convicted him of the snake theft had placed a suppression order on reporting of the case or any part of it, and that Snakeman Raymond Hoser being aware of the (alleged) order had acted in breach of it, this being the justification and basis of his application for another order.
Hoser told the magistrate to check the court database and when she did so, she saw that Gatt had lied to the court and that there was no suppression order of any form on the case on 21 March or the result and therefore Hoser had not acted outside of the law or any order as alleged by Gatt.
Accordingly, Gatt’s application for an intervention order against Snakeman Raymond Hoser was struck out.
The third time Gatt lied to a magistrate was on 21 March, where he improperly tried to blame Snakeman Raymond Hoser for his theft of the snake and said he intended returning it.
The magistrate called out Gatt for lying at the time, noting that a 22 day gap elapsed between the date of his theft of the snake and the police raiding him to seize it.
While this may be read as a win for Snakeman Raymond Hoser against Snake Thief Matthew Christopher Gatt, this was not the case.
Hoser had to reject a last minute school holiday show booking at a shopping mall on the same day, meaning a direct $1,200 loss. This money would have been spent on wildlife conservation and research, meaning that the damage caused by Gatt’s reckless actions went far beyond the mere inconvenience of a day spent hiking across Melbourne to front the Sunshine Magistrates Court.
As to why it is important that Gatt's criminal conviction and fine for theft of a snake is widely disseminated, the obvious is stated here. It is for the purposes of both specific and general deterrence to both Gatt and others that not only will they be punished by the law for doing so, but they will also be publicly disgraced for their illegal and reckless conduct, so that other like-minded individuals are deterred from doing so.
This is the entirety of the reason why this and any other media releases about Matthew Gatt are published on this website.
As a matter of public record, it should be noted that another thief named Stewart Gatt has on 21 May 2019 in a submission to IP Australia wrote "despite having the common surname Gatt, Matthew Gatt is not related to the Applicant nor does he have any association with him".
This statement may or may not be true, but for the time being the potentially wrong claim is being taken at face value by Raymond Hoser.
However the potential confusion by people due to the similarity of names (Gatt) is completely understandable.
Stewart Gatt is also a thief who deals with snakes.
On Stewart Gatt’s Facebook page, where as of 23 May 2019 he illegally uses Raymond Hoser’s registered trademarks he has numerous posts telling and inciting people to attack and cause damage to Raymond Hoser and Snakebusters Reptile Shows and to take their property including byh way of relevant explicit statements on the Facebook page. This includes detailed instructions as to the actions to be taken by Gatt's friends, followers and others to maximize damage to Raymond Hoser and the Snakebusters Reptile Shows wildlife conservation business.
Stewart Gatt is also closely connected to Margaret Irvine Osborne and Bana Osborne, both of whom also regularly post even more hate and lies about Snakeman Raymond Hoser on Gatt’s Facebook page, with the clear intent to incite further attacks on the Snakeman, which Gatt unlawfully does not remove.
These two women, were filmed attempting to steal snakes from a Snakebusters Reptile Show at Morwell and as a result also got court orders made against them by the Morwell Magistrates Court. As of 22 May 2019, Stewart Gatt has also continued to post illegal hate material about Raymond Hoser on his Facebook page in spite of a court order issued on 8 May 2019 which expressly directed him to remove it.
Stewart Gatt was formally served the order on 10 May and it had a compliance date of 15 May.
Stewart Gatt’s defacto wife Crystal Kniese is one of a number of people who have made crank or threatening phone calls to Raymond Hoser. Kniese made at least two unsolicited calls to Hoser on 10 February 2019 from a blocked number. She refused to identify herself in these calls. She gave Snakeman Raymond Hoser extreme verbal abuse and stated she would kill him.
In spite of her best efforts to conceal her ID, the phone call was traced back to Kniese.
See the audio file of this illegal phone call linked here:
http://www.smuggled.com/Gatt-Girlfriend-11-2-19-11-43-17_AM.m4a
The audio files of the phone calls are with the police with a view to her being prosecuted for making the illegal telephone threats and menacing.
Today Raymond Hoser said “Our business is wildlife conservation and research at the highest level of excellence. We do not need to be sidetracked dealing with thieves, thugs, lawbreakers and those who make telephone death threats to traumatize ourselves, our dedicated co-workers and families. The extreme stress caused by these illegal death threats severely reduces our ability to do our conservation work and all other necessary day-to-day activities. … I hope the full force of the law is used to deal with the criminals Stewart Gatt, his wife and anyone else that aids and abets them so as to deter any other like-minded destructive individuals”.
As for Snake Snatcher Matthew Gatt, Raymond Hoser says “hopefully he will not seek to attack our wildlife conservation business again and we can get back to what we do best …. Who knows, maybe at some time in the future both Matthew Gatt and perhaps even Stewart Gatt may change their ways and they could become part of the solution to global wildlife conservation issues, rather than making the problem worse”.
As a final disclaimer, nothing here or elsewhere should be taken in any way as incitement to engage in unlawful actions against those named herein.
Even though they may be horrible, dishonest, lawbreaking individuals, they remain entitled to the full protection of the law and this includes from any other potential law-breakers.
They are entitled to engage in lawful day to day activities without fear of attacks of any form or from any source. The same applies to any other person adversely named on any websites run by Snakeman Raymond Hoser or associated entities.
We ask everyone reading this to respect the lawful rights of those named and anyone else.
Further information can be obtained by phoning Raymond Hoser 0412777211.