Report: Guns left unguarded during VIP visit to save money
Ammunition and machine guns were left in a cell in an island police station overnight to save money, according to former members of the firearms unit.
The incident happened as the squad guarded US ambassador Woody Johnson, when he visited Islay in May 2018 for a memorial event attended by royals and senior politicians.
Thousands of rounds of ammunition and G36 Heckler and Koch semi-automatic machine guns were stored in a cell in the police station at Bowmore overnight without an armed guard because, allegedly, management did not want to pay overtime.
A memo voicing concern, and sent to senior officers, suggests the decision “was to prevent the force having to pay 16 hours in reserve”. The document questioned the safety protocol issues and asked: “If there is enough concern to deploy specialist officers, why have we taken all their weapons and ammo from them?”. It added: “The smallest amount of assumptions and
reconnaissance by terror groups or similar could have resulted in a catastrophe”.
A source said: “This was all about not having to pay officers for guarding the weapons and ammunition. It broke every standard operating procedure in the book.”
“It was swept under the carpet and labelled as ‘minor misconduct’.”
Mr Johnson visited Port Ellen war memorial for a commemoration ceremony to 700 First World War soldiers who lost their lives in the sinking of two US ships off the coast. Other attendees at the 1,000-strong gathering included Princess Anne, then-scottish Secretary David Mundell, Scottish Government minister Fiona Hyslop and other politicians.
Police Scotland said: “A full risk assessment into the storage of weapons and ammunition was carried out and approved by senior firearms commanders beforehand.
“All equipment was appropriately stored and locked within the police station which was staffed overnight.
“This was a short-term response which was proportionate and justifiable in relation to the challenges faced during the deployment.”