END OF THE ARMOURER
Gun dealer who supplied gangs jailed for 30 years
A ROGUE firearms dealer who supplied guns and bullets linked to three murders and more than 100 crimes has been jailed for 30 years.
Paul Edmunds, 66, imported a pistol used in a fatal shooting at a nightclub and supplied ammunition used in two other killings and a bid to shoot down a police helicopter.
Edmunds, of Gloucestershire, was arrested at his home in 2015.
The registered gun dealer was found guilty in November of conspiracy to illegally supply firearms and ammunition and smuggling banned Colt handguns into the UK from the US.
Edmunds and accomplice Mohinder Surdhar, who will be sentenced today, supplied antique revolvers and custom-made ammunition to criminal gangs.
Judge Richard Bond told Edmunds: “You ran roughshod over your legal responsibilities as a registered firearms dealer.
“Without your actions, the numerous handguns and handloaded ammunition would not have found their way on to the streets of the United Kingdom.”
The parents of 18-year-old Kenichi Phillips, who was shot dead in Birmingham last March, were in the public gallery.
Jurors heard one of the pensioner’s unfired rounds was found at the scene of Kenichi’s murder, one of 107 crime scenes linked to the ex-photographer.
Four of Edmunds’ bullets were recovered from the body of a man who was murdered on Boxing Day 2013 at the Avalon nightclub in London.
About 1000 bullets connected to him have been recovered from crime scenes, including several gangland shootings, all over England.