Police and Crime Commissioner calls for tougher sentencing for sellers of zombie knives

PCC Foster wants harsher sentencing for the supply and sale of dangerous knives, swords and machetes with no practical purpose, other than to be used to intimidate, threaten or cause death and serious injury.

The PCC believes the government is “failing to be tough enough” amid proposals to increase the maximum penalty for the manufacture, importation, sale and supply of zombie and prohibited knives from six months to two years imprisonment.

Such weapons remain readily available to buy online, with PCC Simon Foster demanding websites such as Amazon ban the sale of dangerous knives and swords. These weapons, capable of causing death and serious injury, are also continually made available to under-18s from local shops across the region.

The schoolboy killers of Wolverhampton schoolboy Ronan Kanda bought a sickening array of ninja swords, machetes and zombie knives despite being under 18. Last week Ronan's mother Pooja joined actor Idris Elba for the launch of his Don't Stop Your Future which demanded the implementation of the banning of zombie knives.

PCC Simon Foster believes the manufacture, importation, sale and supply of prohibited knives, swords and machetes, should carry a similar sentence for the production, importation and supply of drugs, which range from a life sentence (Class A) to up to 14 years in prison (Class B, Class C), as well as an unlimited fine.

The PCC said: “I am concerned that the government is failing to be tough enough to crack down on the ruthless people who are responsible for the manufacture, importation, sale and supply of these dangerous weapons. It does not appear to me, that an increase in the maximum penalty from six months to two years, is a proper reflection of the seriousness of this criminality.”

He added: “It is the first duty of government to keep its people safe. The government has been in serious breach of that duty, as a consequence of its failure to prevent, tackle and reduce the availability of these dangerous weapons.

"I welcome measures that will have the effect of preventing the availability of these dangerous weapons, whether online or otherwise – and that will ensure the people responsible for making them available are held to account, via the criminal justice system.”