WIREDGOV

A man who tried to smuggle eight firearms into the UK has been jailed for eight years and three months.

Gerard Dagnall, 33, was stopped at the Port of Dover in Kent with eight revolvers in his car on 15 July this year.

He was returning from Belgium where he bought the prohibited guns claiming he thought they were antiques and that he was going to give some to a friend and sell the others.

Dagnall, who is unemployed, told National Crime Agency officers he bought the firearms for 3,400 Euros from a business in Holmbeek, just north of Brussels, which wouldn’t ship them because the guns would be stopped during border checks.

Despite this, he renewed his passport to travel abroad and tried to bring them into the country.

When officers searched his home they also discovered an illegal, 3D printed firearm. It was not fully viable.

Dagnall, of Scarisbrick Drive, Walton, Liverpool, admitting importing the original lethal purpose firearms and possessing the 3D printed firearm, and was sentenced today at Canterbury Crown Court.

NCA operations manager Rachel Bramley said:

“The NCA works with partners at home and abroad to protect the public from the criminal use of firearms.

“Gun smuggling is an extremely serious offence and weapons of this type in criminal hands bring significant danger to our communities.

“Ignorance of the law is no defence.”