MoD guard in AK47 theft is spared prison
A BARRACKS guard caught with a Kalashnikov assault rifle he stole from a base has been spared jail.
Philip Bowler, 53, took the AKS47M1 from the Royal Military Police Museum at Chichester Barracks, West Sussex, when it closed in 2005.
Police found the gun, which he had deactivated, in his wardrobe in Havant, Hants, along with ammo.
At Portsmouth crown court Bowler, now an MoD guard at the city’s Naval base, admitted guilt.
Judge Roger Hetherington spared him the mandatory five-year minimum term for having an AK47 due to exceptional circumstances.
Bowler got 16 months, suspended two years.
The MoD said he would face an internal probe.