Sean Anthony Edwards & Others [2019] EWCA Crim 926

All four appellants entered guilty pleas during the trial and were sentenced as follows: Edwards 14 years 3 months imprisonment, Frith 19 years, Cullen 21 years and 8 months, and McCarthy 20 years.

The background to the offending was the purchase of blank firing pistols by McCarthy which were then modified into working weapons. A car driven by Firth was stopped with Cullen and Edwards as passengers, McCarthy was in a second vehicle nearby. In the boot of the first vehicle were two guns and ammunition, the bag that they were in had McCarthy’s fingerprints on it. The Crown’s case was that Cullen organised the sale of the two guns with McCarthy. Firth was to assist in the transportation of the guns and Edwards was a middleman.

Held: But for a point raised by the Registrar the appeals would have been dismissed. The maximum sentence for selling ammunition without being registered is 5 years so the concurrent sentences passed by the judge cannot stand. Those sentences were quashed and substituted with 3 years imprisonment. This made no difference to the overall sentences.