This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36102100
The article has changed 6 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
Version 0 | Version 1 |
---|---|
Two men found guilty over UK gun smuggling | |
(35 minutes later) | |
Two men have been found guilty of smuggling assault rifles and sub-machine guns into the UK. | |
Harry Shilling, 26, and Michael Defraine, 30, were convicted of two charges each at the Old Bailey. | |
The weapons, said to be worth more than £100,000, were brought on a boat from France to Kent in August last year. The court heard the pair had intended to sell them to criminal gangs. | |
Two other defendants, Jennifer Arthy, 42, and John Smale, 58, were cleared. | |
The National Crime Agency described the haul as the "biggest seizure of weapons on the UK mainland". | |
'Serious danger' | |
After Shilling and Defraine were found guilty of conspiring to import and sell the weapons, the judge, Mr Justice Topolski, told them they both faced the possibility of life sentences. | |
"Criminals like you at or near the top of criminal organisations invariably pose a serious danger to the public," he said. | |
A life sentence would come in for "serious consideration", he added. | |
David Payne, 43, Richard Rye, 24, and Christopher Owen, 30, had already pleaded guilty to smuggling the weapons into the country. | |
Payne and Rye also admitted the second count relating to conspiracy to sell the arsenal. | |
The guns - 22 assault rifles similar to AK-47s, and nine Skorpion sub-machine guns - were brought into the UK from Boulogne on a 38ft (12m) cruiser, the MV Albernina, the court heard. | |
All had originally been deactivated but were reactivated before they, along with a large amount of ammunition, were smuggled up the Medway into Kent, arriving near Cuxton Marina on 10 August last year. | |
But the National Crime Agency had the plotters under surveillance and swooped to seize the cache before it could be buried and then sold, the court heard. |