Man who got Taser gun from USA did not know it was illegal
A MAN ordered a Taser gun online because he was unaware that it was illegal to have one, a court was told.
Andrew Bembridge ordered the item on an American website which did not prevent him from posting it to the UK, with the weapon legal in many US states.
It was discovered by police alongside drug paraphernalia when they searched his home in Newbold Back Lane, Chesterfield, in October 2019, after he had tested positive for cocaine when spoken to by police following a disturbance in a car park at the Tesco Express in Newbold Lane.
Bembridge, 46, was on an 18-month suspended sentence for previous drugrelated offences involving heroin and cannabis at the time, but he avoided being sent to jail when he appeared at Derby Crown Court on Wednesday.
Recorder Peter Ievens said: “I am sure you were told that if you committed offences punishable by imprisonment during the term of your suspended sentence you would go to prison.
“Normally, you would, but it is now two years since you committed these offences and that is a very long time, both in the life of the nation after all that has happened to this country in the last 18 months and all that has happened to you.
“Given the lapse of time coupled with what has happened in your life, I’m not going to impose the suspended sentence. I do have to take some action with regards to the breach of the suspended sentence, so I’m going to fine you £100.”
Eunice Opare-Addo, prosecuting, said that police also discovered one MDMA tablet, 11 grammes of cannabis worth between £70 and £85 and small amounts of heroin and diazepam pills at the property.
Bembridge had earlier pleaded guilty to one count of possession of a Class A drug, namely heroin, and another of MDMA, one count of possession of a Class B drug, namely cannabis, possession of a Class C drug, namely diazepam and possession of a Taser. He was
given an 18-month conditional discharge for the possession of the Taser, alongside the £100 fine, and was given a four-month custodial sentence, suspended for 18 months, for the possession of heroin.
He was also handed concurrent onemonth sentences for the cannabis and MDMA offences, and a concurrent 14-day sentence for the possession of diazepam.
William Bennett, for Bembridge, said that his client had taken positive steps to turn his life around by staying off illegal substances, and had only bought the Taser for self defence.
He said: “He is a drug addict who has had a problem with heroin in particularly, on and off, for 20 years and one can see that culminated in selling drugs to fund that addiction.
“Two years is an enormously long time in the life of someone who has led a chaotic life through drugs.
“Things have changed hugely for this defendant. He has now in a stable relationship with his partner. His habit is stabilised on a fairly heavy methadone script. He is not tapping up.
“It is worrying that he had a Taser at the time of this offence.
“If you don’t know the law you think that you have a legitimate defence weapon. He realises his folly now and had no intention to take it out of his house.”
The judge added that he accepted the defence’s explanation as to how Bembridge came to possess the weapon, which along with the drugs is now set to be destroyed. Bembridge was also ordered to attend 10 rehabilitation activity requirement days.