Gun fanatic from Wordsley gets 16 years

A gun fanatic who hoarded some of the deadliest weapons ever encountered by police in the West Midlands was today beginning a 16-year prison sentence.

Farmer David Evans had Uzis, shotguns and a hitman-style pistol with a silencer, some of which were only issued to foreign armies.

Police who seized the deadly guns feared they could have been used by far-right extremists.

They say the guns could have caused mayhem had they fallen into the hands of terrorists or drugs gangs.

But detectives say 42-year-old Evans, of Lawnswood Road, Wordsley, was simply a collector who never had any plans to sell them or use them in crime.

Judge Michael Challinor told Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday that the machine guns were known as "room sprayers, designed for one purpose – killing people".

He told Evans, who was convicted of 29 firearms charges: "You cynically and deliberately collected this cache of weapons, some of which were described as dangerous a weapon as one firearms expert had seen in his 37-year career."

Evans had passed the weapons to 25-year-old Daniel Thatcher, of Summerfield Avenue, Wall Heath.

Police searched Thatcher's house when he was arrested on an unrelated matter and found guns and cartridges.

Police found a bullet at a barn Evans ran his business from at Hinksford Farm, Swindon, South Staffordshire. He was arrested on June 17 last year.

Evans was jailed for five years, later cut to three, in 2005 for posting an illegal firearm to a legitimate dealer.

By Crime Correspondent Mike Woods