Gunman given conditional discharge (From This Is Cheshire)

Gunman given conditional discharge

1:50pm Wednesday 24th June 2009

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A MAN who bought a gun believing it had been decomissioned when in fact it had been partly rebuilt has been given a conditional discharge for having the firearm.

Forty-year-old Simon Stamp, of Thelwall Lane in Latchford, owned the Soviet Military Makarov 9mm self loading gun, having bought it at a car boot sale on the understanding it was deactivated.

In fact, it was partly restored though still incapable of firing.

A police expert, however, managed to fire the gun by rebuilding another part of it.

On Monday at Warrington Crown Court, Judge David Hale told Stamp it was ‘highly unusual’ for someone on firearms charges to escape jail.

“Although this is an offence which, on the face of it, has a minimum prison sentence of five years, that would be palpably absurd in this situation,” he said.

“The risk always is that these things can get to people who have got the skills to put it back together.”

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