Illegal arms dealer from Enfield jailed for seven years (From Enfield Independent)

Illegal arms dealer from Enfield jailed for seven years

4:45pm Tuesday 9th February 2010

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AN arms dealer from Enfield who illegally supplied bombs, ammunition and weapons to Sri Lanka and Israel has been jailed.

Howard Freckleton, 64, was sentenced to seven years, while his accomplice Gideon Sarig, 58, of Maida Vale, was jailed for nine years.

Freckleton and Sarig were found guilty of trading in controlled goods with intent to evade prohibition.

Both had denied the charges.

Sarig, a UK national with joint Israeli-British citizenship, was also found guilty of trading 391 pump-action shotguns from Turkey to Israel, Venezuela and Burkina Faso, and 1,000 anti-riot shields from Turkey to Israel.

But he was cleared of another charge of supplying 1,000 semi-automatic pistols and ammunition to Venezuela and Sri Lanka.

Peter Millroy, head of HM Revenue and Customs' specialist unit on military exports, said: "These were flagrant breaches of UK trade controls on the supply of military equipment between third countries, some of which were areas of armed conflict and others of which were close to such areas."

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