WIREDGOV

Five men from Merseyside have been jailed over a plot to supply a blank firing gun that was converted to be lethal, following an investigation by the specialist Merseyside Organised Crime Partnership.

Brothers Thomas Collins, 30, and Alan Gray, 36, sold a Turkish made Ekol Alper self-loading blank pistol to Connor Nixon, 27, and arranged a handover on a footpath near Rosedale Close, Walton, Liverpool.

Broker Thomas Ambrose, 30, arranged the deal and attended the handover on 21 May this year along with Christopher James, 26, who Nixon – a member of a Wirral based organised crime group - used as a courier to move the gun back over the water.

Collins handed the weapon to Nixon who inspected it, placed it in James’s bag and paid Gray for it.

The plot was foiled by the Merseyside Organised Crime Partnership, a team of officers from the National Crime Agency and Merseyside Police set up to tackle high risk organised crime groups bringing drugs and guns into the region.

Once the handover had happened, James took the gun in a taxi which officers stopped and he was arrested. James also had in his possession a magazine and 11 rounds of live ammunition.

James, of Collin Road, Wirral, admitted firearms offences earlier this year and was jailed for five years.

The serial number on the firearm was obliterated and blue paint on its slide – which shows it is a blank firer – was scrubbed off to make it look like a lethal purpose firearm. It was later test fired successfully.

On 8^th November, the remaining offenders were sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court after admitting firearms offences.

Gray, of Cassia Close, Walton, was sentenced to 10 years and eight months; Collins, of Robson Street, Walton, was sentenced to seven years and four months; Ambrose, of Bidston Green, Wirral, was sentenced to six years, and Nixon, of Farmfield Drive, Wirral, was sentenced to six years and nine months.

Philip Brown, senior manager at the NCA, said: “The OCP’s core mission is to protect the communities of Merseyside from organised crime groups and offenders such as these.

”Tackling the criminal use of firearms is a priority for the Merseyside OCP and we will continue to do everything in our power to achieve that.”

An amnesty will be held next year for owners of four types of top-venting blank firearms to be surrendered after tests showed they were illegal.

In their original state they have a fully blocked barrel and are designed to discharge only blank cartridges. But since 2021, UK law enforcement has recovered 800 of the guns converted to fire live ammunition.

In England and Wales between 3 February and 28 February owners of the Turkish models: Retay, Ekol, Ceonic ISSC and Blow, can hand them in at police stations.