Just recently a man was sentenced to 3 yrs in jail for
possesing a weapon
Had found a sawed off shotgun in his year where had been
tossed by criminals
Took it to police station and was arrested for possesing a
weapon ....
Judge said didnt matter wasn’t his .......
And where did this supposedly happen?
Paul Clarke, 2009.
He was found guilty and given a 1 yr suspended sentence. The case caused anger here because the prosecution and judge chose to follow the strict letter of the law. Instead of actual Home Office guidelines which state that no civilian who tries to hand it in should be considered having ‘possessed’ the weapon.
The problem was that Clarke rather stupidly didnt call the police straight away, but set up a later meeting with a policeman he knew THEN handed it over. Therefore he was deemed to have ‘possessed’ the weapon and failed to immediately hand the weapon over to police.