UK Lockdown: Exposing Organised Crime and Corruption in the UK: Crime

Showing posts with label Crime. Show all posts

Daily mail 4th November 2008

Burglary victims can expect a visit from the police within 60 minutes - but only if they are upset or ' vulnerable', the Government will say today.

Homeowners who are not distressed could wait 48 hours for an arranged visit 'at a time that fits in with your life'.

The guidelines are among ten new police 'pledges' to the public to be unveiled by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith this morning.

The pledges also include a commitment that neighbourhood policing teams - who are supposed to spend their time patrolling the streets - will be visible for 80 per cent of the time.

It means they will still spend a fifth of their shift out of public view. Officers should be at the scene of an emergency 999 call - such as a violent attack or rape - within 15 minutes in an urban area, or 20 minutes in a rural community.

But, for non-emergency calls, the response times can be significantly longer. The pledge will say that, 'if attendance is needed' the police will 'send a patrol giving you an estimated time of arrival. If you are vulnerable or upset, officers will aim to be with you within 60 minutes'.

But it adds: 'Alternatively, if appropriate, we will make an appointment to see you at a time that fits in with your life and within 48 hours. 'If agreed that attendance is not necessary we will give you advice, answer your questions and / or put you in touch with someone who can help.'

Other commitments include treating the public 'fairly', with 'dignity and respect', and involving them in setting local policing priorities. Neighbourhood Policing Teams will be 'visible and on your patch at times when they will be most effective'.

The pledge says: 'We will ensure your team are not taken away from neighbourhood business more than is absolutely necessary. They will spend at least 80 per cent of their time visibly working in your neighbourhood, tackling your priorities.'

There is also a commitment to regularly publish local crime maps. Miss Smith will be hoping the pledges, to be issued across the country by the end of the year, will restore battered public trust in the police.

Last month, it emerged four in ten victims of crime do not currently receive a visit from an officer. And a report by the Civitas think-tank also warned middle class people have lost confidence in the police.

It found that responses to crimes such as burglary are slow and statements given by victims of serious crime are often left lying idle for months.

Meanwhile, complaints against police officers in England and Wales have risen to record levels.

Miss Smith said: 'The public have told us what they want from policing and the justice system - services that listen and act on their priorities.'

But Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve said: 'This re-hashed re-announcement is typical of a government that has run out of ideas.

'On the one hand, it includes policy proposals - such as crime-mapping - copied directly from the Conservatives.

'On the other hand, attempts to prescribe quotas and response times look like the return of discredited Whitehall targets under another name.'

A leaked early version of the pledge, saying police should respond to emergency calls within three hours and attend less urgent incidents within three days, was withdrawn earlier this year amid fierce criticism.

CBeebies actor is jailed for child pornography offences

Daily Mail 2nd November 2008

Bernard Dorman, who appeared in Brum, has been banned from working with children

An actor who appeared in a BBC children’s TV series has been jailed for 16 months for child pornography offences.

Bernard Dorman pleaded guilty to inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and to taking indecent pictures of two girls.

Dorman, 75, was in three episodes of Brum in 2001 – four years after he was given community service for previous child pornography offences.

On October 19 this year, Warwick Crown Court was told police raided his Coventry home in March 2007 and found 15 indecent pictures of a 14-year-old girl.

He also took 284 indecent pictures of a 17-year-old.

He was ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register and banned from working with children.

Ragdoll Productions, which made the show for the BBC’s CBeebies channel, said no children appeared in the same scenes as Dorman.

The BBC said it would not repeat the episodes in which he appeared.

The CBeebies series Brum follows the adventures of a little car

Trojan virus steals banking info

BBC News 31 October 2008

The details of about 500,000 online bank accounts and credit and debit cards have been stolen by a virus described as "one of the most advanced pieces of crimeware ever created".

The Sinowal trojan has been tracked by RSA, which helps to secure networks in Fortune 500 companies.

RSA said the trojan virus has infected computers all over the planet.

"The effect has been really global with over 2000 domains compromised," said Sean Brady of RSA's security division.

He told the BBC: "This is a serious incident on a very noticeable scale and we have seen an increase in the number of trojans and their variants, particularly in the States and Canada."

The RSA's Fraud Action Research Lab said it first detected the Windows Sinowal trojan in Feb 2006.

Since then, Mr Brady said, more than 270,000 banking accounts and 240,000 credit and debit cards have been compromised from financial institutions in countries including the US, UK, Australia and Poland.

The lab said no Russian accounts were hit by Sinowal.

"Drive-by downloads"

RSA described the Sinowal as "one of the most serious threats to anyone with an internet connection" because it works behind the scenes using a common infection method known as "drive-by downloads"."

Users can get infected without knowing if they visit a website that has been booby-trapped with the Sinowal malicious code.

Mr Brady said the worrying aspect about Sinowal, which is also known as Torpig and Mebroot, is that it has been operating for so long.

"One of the key points of interest about this particular trojan is that it has existed for two and a half years quietly collecting information," he said. "Any IT professional will tell you it costs a lot to maintain and to store the information it is gathering.

"The group behind it have made sure to invest in the infrastructure no doubt because the return and the potential return is so great."

RSA's researchers said the trojan's creators periodically release new variants to ensure it stays ahead of detection and maintain "its uninterrupted grip on infected computers."

While RSA's lab has been tracking the trojan since 2006, Mr Brady admitted that they know a lot about its design and infrastructure but little about who is behind Sinowal.

"There is a lot of talk about where it comes from and anecdotal evidence points to Russia and Eastern Europe. Historically there have been connections with an online gang connected to the Russian Business Network but in reality no one knows for sure."

That he said is because the group is able to use the web to cloak its identity.

Infection

In April 2007, researchers at Google discovered hundreds of thousands of web pages that initiated drive-by downloads. It estimated that one in ten of the 4.5 million pages it analysed were suspect.

Sophos researchers reported in 2008 it was finding more than 6,000 newly infected web pages every day, or about one every 14 seconds.

RSA's fraud action team said it noticed a spike in attacks from March through to September this year.

That is backed up by another online security company called Fortinet. It said from July 2008 to September 2008 the number of reported attacks rose from 10m to 30m. This included trojans, viruses, malware, phishing and mass mailings.

"The explosion in the number of attacks is alarming," said Derek Manky of Fortinet.

"But trojans are just one of the players in the game wreaking havoc in cyberspace."

Remedies

While attacks are on the increase, there are some simple steps that users can take to protect their information besides using security software.

"We have a saying here which is 'think before you link,'" said Mr Manky.

"That just means observe where you are going on the web. Be wary of clicking on anything in a high traffic site like social networks.

"A lot of traffic in the eyes of cyber criminals means these sites are a target because to these people more traffic means more money," he said.

RSA also urged users to be wary if their bank started asking for different forms of authentication such as a social security number or other details.

"People think not clicking on a pop up or an attachment means they are safe. What people don't realise now is that just visiting a website is good enough to infect them."

RSA said it is co-operating with banks and financial institutions the world over to tell them about Sinowal. It has passed information about the virus to law enforcement agencies.

One in ten adults admits taking illegal drugs in the past year

Daily mail 30th October 2008

One in ten adults admits using illegal drugs in the past year, startling new Home Office figures reveal.

The statistics show that more people are taking the most harmful Class A substances than ten years ago.

Of the three million people aged 16 to 59 who have taken at least one illegal drug over the past 12 months, almost a million admit using the hardest drugs, including cocaine, heroin and ecstasy. Almost 750,000 have snorted cocaine.

On the rise: 730,000 admitted snorting cocaine in the past 12 months - use of the drug has grown dramatically since 1997, with worrying signs that people in their 30s and 40s are continuing their habits into middle age

On the rise: 730,000 admitted snorting cocaine in the past 12 months - and people in their 30s and 40s appear to be continuing their habits into middle age

Critics say the figures expose the Government's failure to make inroads into the level of use of the most harmful drugs.

But Ministers say the overall trend in illegal drug abuse is down and point to a fall in the numbers taking cannabis.

Cocaine use has grown dramatically since 1997, and there are worrying signs that a
generation of older drug-takers are continuing their habits into middle age.

Opposition critics blamed the growth on what they called Labour's 'mixed messages' on drug use and a failure to pursue effective treatment strategies.

While some 200,000 drug users enter treatment each year, only around three per cent are drug-free at the end of their course.

The drug statistics are based on household surveys and officials admit they are almost certainly a significant underestimate of total use as they ignore under-16s, the homeless, students in halls of residence and addicts with chaotic lifestyles.

More than a third of the 32million adults in Britain admit having used illegal drugs at some time of their life.

The proportion using hard drugs in the past year is three per cent, up from 2.7 per cent in 1998. They include 740,000 who admit snorting cocaine and 470,000 who took ecstasy.

More than 9.6million people now admit using cannabis, of whom almost 2.4million - 7.4 per cent of adults - have taken it in the past year.

The highest rates of drug taking are in the 16-24 age group, where 42 per cent admit taking illegal drugs, including 21.3 per cent in the past year. Around 15 per cent have taken Class A drugs, and 18 per cent have used cannabis in the past year.

There are worrying signs of increased use among older users, particularly of cocaine.

The proportion of adults aged 25 to 29 admitting using Class A drugs has risen from 3.9 per cent in 1996 to 6.3 per cent.

For those aged 30 to 34 the figure has doubled to 3.8 per cent, and for 35 to 44-year- olds it has more than trebled, from 0.5 per cent to 1.7 per cent.

Trends in overall drug use are more encouraging, mainly driven by a fall in past-year cannabis use - from 9.5 per cent of adults in 1996 to 7.4 per cent.

The proportion of adults who admit taking any illegal drug over the past 12 months fell from 10 to 9.3 per cent last year. In 1996 the figure was 11.1per cent.

The Home Office released separate figures boasting of a record number of drug seizures, up from 161,000 to 186,000 last year.

Recent increases, however, are mostly down to a huge rise in on-the-spot cannabis warnings by police. Users have their drugs confiscated but do not face arrest or a criminal record.

Home Office Minister Alan Campbell said last night: 'These statistics show that overall drug use continues to fall and is now at its lowest level for ten years. Our efforts in tackling drugs are clearly delivering results.'

But Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve said: 'No amount of spin can hide the fact that Class A drug use and drug crime have risen under this Government, leaving Britain with the worst drug abuse problem in Europe.'

Career criminals 'fixed their own royal pardons by leading police to gun hoards planted by accomplices'

Daily Mail 10th October 2008

On the face of it, they were model supergrasses - pointing police to a series of major gun hoards.

The information passed on by career criminals John Haase and Paul Bennett earned them a royal pardon and early release from jail.

But yesterday, a court heard that the seizures were all a big fix.

Prosecutors said the caches of firearms, drugs and money found in cars, houses and garages around the country had in fact been planted by the men's accomplices.

'Model supergrasses': John Haase (left) and Paul Bennett 'turned informant to secure their early release'

The revelation is embarrassing for then home secretary and later Conservative leader Michael Howard, who acted to secure the pair's pardon.

Haase, 59, and Bennett, 44, were arrested in July 1993 following a major investigation into an 'international drug trafficking operation'.

Southwark Crown Court heard they hatched a plan to reduce their sentences by telling HM Customs and Excise they would become informants.

The pair were jailed for 18 years, in August 1995. But the judge wrote privately to Mr Howard asking for a royal pardon after being told the information they had passed on to the authorities was so sensitive that their lives 'would be at risk' if it became known that they had turned informer.

Mr Howard approved the 'Royal Prerogative of Mercy' and their sentences were cut to five years.

They were released on July 4, 1996 - ten months and two weeks after being sentenced.

Gibson Grenfell, QC, prosecuting, told the jury yesterday that the men, from Liverpool, had manipulated the criminal justice system to ensure their early release.

He described Haase as a 'major career criminal' who had the money and contacts to carry out the scheme.

Both men had used secret mobile phones to organise the scam, it was alleged.

Mr Grenfell said: 'The prosecution case is that these firearms were procured and laid down on behalf of, and at the direction of, Haase and Bennett, to allow them to represent to the authorities that in relation to the firearms they were providing genuine intelligence about other criminals.

'Their purpose in doing so was to obtain undeserved but substantial credit for such intelligence when they came to be sentenced.'

Mr Grenfell said that 28 firearms seizures were made between October 1993 and August 1995 as a result of the information supplied by Haase and Bennett.

A total of 35 police seizures were made, mainly around Liverpool, Manchester and Bristol, during the two years.

Mr Grenfell added: 'The various firearms seizures and the fact that information about them came from Haase and Bennett formed a major influence on the judge who sentenced them.'

The prosecution allege Haase's now wife, Deborah, 37,and her friend Sharon Knowles, 36, were among the accomplices used to orchestrate the scam.

The four defendants all deny conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Mrs Haase also denies possession of firearms and ammunition without permission.

The trial continues.

Home owner arrested after burglar is left fighting for life after house raid

Daily Mail 2nd October 2008

A man is fighting for his life in hospital after he was attacked and left for dead just hours after he allegedly committed a house robbery.

Police were investigating whether the 56-year-old man was definitely involved in a house raid just before he was viciously attacked.

The 56-year-old was found with serious head injuries and rushed to hospital before being transferred to a specialist neurological unit where his condition was described as 'critical'.

The man was taken to Poole Hospital before he was transferred to a specialist neurological unit where he remains in a critical condition

Officers arrested a 22-year-old Brazilian man on suspicion of assaulting the alleged burglar.

Detectives are trying to piece together exactly what happened during the incident at 1pm in Bournemouth, Dorset, yesterday.

A Dorset Police spokesman said: 'Police were called to Derby Road in Bournemouth with a report of an assault.

'On arrival officers found a 56-year-old Bournemouth man lying in the road with serious head injuries.

'The man was taken by ambulance to Poole Hospital and later that day transferred to Southampton Hospital's neurological intensive care unit.

He confirmed detectives were investigating reports that the injured man may have been responsible for a burglary that had occurred before the assault.

The 22-year-old man today remains in custody.

UK Lockdown point of view
In this case it appears that the victim is only suspected of burglary so it would be wrong to make any comment on this specific case at this time, however it must be pointed out that if burglars and other criminals were dealt with in this way regularly we would have a much safer society for decent citizens and a much less safe society for criminals, it is duty of all decent citizens to ensure that our towns and cities are no longer safe-havens for criminals.

Half of England's councils can't keep their streets free of litter

Daily Mail 23rd September 2008

More than half of England's councils are unable to keep their streets free of litter, according to a government-commissioned study.

Researchers found that 187 council areas were blighted by 'unsatisfactory' levels of litter.

That means most residents would consider there to be a problem with street rubbish, and some would complain to the council about it.

Street of shame: More than half of England's councils are unable to keep their streets free of litter, a government-commissioned report found

Only one council, Kennet in Wiltshire, was considered to have a 'good' standard of hygiene.

The three worst-performing councils, which were labelled 'poor', were Sandwell in the West Midlands, Knowsley in Liverpool and Wigan.

Litter is still endemic even though new powers to control it were handed to councils in the 2005 Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act.

These include onthe-spot fines of up to £70.

The survey of all 353 district councils in England was carried out by the Keep Britain Tidy Campaign for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs between April 2006 and March 2008.

The report found that all councils were judged to have fly-tipping and graffiti under control. Cigarette butts are the most common litter found on the streets followed by sweet wrappers, drinks cartons and fast food packaging.

Phil Barton, chief executive of Keep Britain Tidy, said: 'The results of this report show that more needs to be done to tackle the problem of litter in this country.

Clearly the levels of litter nationwide-are unacceptable.' A spokesman-for Keep Britain Tidy called for more action from councils.

He said: 'There are laws in place enabling local authorities to issue on-the-spot fines.

'We would like to see more people fined for plaguing our streets with pizza boxes, cans, crisps and cigarette butts. But ultimately fining is just one way of getting the message across.'

Earlier this month, Keep Britain Tidy launched The Big Tidy Up - a month-long litter blitz - to try to clean up the country.

Last year, councils spent more than £600million cleaning up the parks, roads and countryside.

They also issued a record number of fines for littering, the worst areas being Manchester, Southwark and Nottingham.

Environment Minister Jonathan Shaw told a newspaper: 'It's not just down to our local authorities - everyone has a part to play in keeping our streets clean - there's much more we can all do to cut down on litter.

'I hope this information will also encourage people to think more carefully about how they treat their local environment.'

Reports on litter in five remaining council areas - Barnet, Redbridge, Southend, North Norfolk and Maldon - should be published by the end of the year.

A spokesman for the Local Government Association said: 'This sort of survey is important to bring these issues into the public consciousness, and help councils make the streets better for local people.

'Most people take pride in their surroundings, but councils must continue to crack down on the minority of people who spoil the area for everyone else. On-the-spot fines are one way of doing this.'

UK Lockdown point of view
It's no surprise to see that even the smallest of issues is being used to piggyback the EU police state agenda, it won't be long before 50 percent of the population work for the government and the other 50 percent pay their wages through non stop fines & charges, littering is a serious issue and should be treated seriously, and should not be used as a revenue raising method, why not force the corporate parasites to use less unnecessary packaging on their products and put out more bins in places where they are needed like outside takeaway shops ?

UK must 'avert social collapse'

Daily Mail 14 September 2008

The main UK parties must unite around policies that will "avert social collapse" caused by rising violent crime and disorder, say two senior MPs.
Ex-Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith and former Labour minister Graham Allen are calling for more support for early intervention schemes in communities.

They say more work is needed to improve the life chances of poor children.

The government runs early intervention schemes, but the two MPs say policy failures span three decades.

Life chances

Their report will be published jointly on Tuesday by two think-tanks: the Centre for Social Justice which is chaired by Mr Duncan Smith; and the left-leaning Smith Institute, set up in memory of the late Labour leader John Smith.

It will call for agreement from all parties on the importance of projects designed to bolster the life chances of children who are living in deprivation, from the moment they are born.
Such schemes - some of which already exist - shore up young families and can "halt the slide to delinquency", say the MPs.

Unless concerted action is taken, they warn that Britain will be "saddled with a new generation of disturbed and aggressive young people doomed to repeat and amplify the social breakdown disfiguring their lives and others around them".

Mr Allen, MP for Nottingham North, says in the report: "We talk from very different political traditions, but our conclusion was that policy failure reaches across all parties and across 30 years of government.

"Polarised thinking will not provide the basis for the long-term sustainable policies needed to bring about intergenerational change."

Mr Allen said he and Mr Duncan Smith shared "contempt for the cheap thoughtless soundbites of the party political dogfight, be they from Labour ('hug a hoodie') or Conservatives ('Asbos on embryos')".

In a joint foreword to the report, called Early Intervention: Good Parents, Great Kids, Better Citizens, the MPs say: "We are convinced it is cheaper and more sensible to tackle social problems before they begin."

They said government alone could not resolve the most serious social problems, adding that many of the most successful interventions were introduced by the voluntary sector.
Mr Duncan Smith writes that the "creeping expansion of the underclass" is sucking "decent" families into the "code of the street".

He cites research suggesting that on more and more council estates, anti-social behaviour is regarded as the norm, and is spreading.

Mr Duncan Smith also warns that council estates are increasingly becoming a ghetto for the poor, dominated by low-income, single-parent families living on benefits.

"Young children suffer life-long damage in a world where they sit in front of the television all day, encounter constant anger and shouting, and witness their mothers being abused by a boyfriend.

"They arrive at nursery school unable hardly to speak or relate to other children without resorting to violence."

"And once they fall behind their peer group, they are all too often on a slippery slope to social exclusion, crime or drugs. It costs far more to help a teenager who has become entrenched in this kind of disadvantage...than it would to stop him or her falling behind in the first place."

Long-term research

Mr Allen's Nottingham constituency is home to the UK's first "early intervention" city, which in April launched measures to stop its poorest children from drifting into crime.

Projects include nursing help for teenage mothers, and children being taught how to discuss their feelings and about the danger of drugs.

Mr Allen - who chairs the project - said they wanted their party leaders to support such programmes across the UK.

The two MPs urged Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Conservative leader David Cameron to endorse further moves, including:

• Promising to pursue early intervention policies in their party manifestos.

• Setting up a long-term research study to compare groups of children with and without early intervention

• Pledging to create a National Policy Assessment Centre to examine and recommend the best early intervention policies.

They have also called on central and local governments to host an Early Intervention Leader's network in the UK, and said the policy should be at the heart of the government's next review of public spending.

The Treasury should find a way to release more funds now to finance schemes that would ultimately achieve "massive" savings in the future, they added.

UK Lockdown point of view
'The center for social justice' and the 'Smith Institute' are now making it clear that the real power in this country lies in the hands of the Non Government Organisations NGO's who have entirely their own agenda and have nothing but contempt for the voting public, this story provides another perfect example of how the Zionist shadow government operates within our society, they hijack real issues such as depravation, poverty etc. as an excuse to introduce social engineering programs disguised as helping those in need; don't fall for this helping the poor trick the Zionist swindling and Zionist subversion of our democracy is the real cause of poverty in Britain and it would be foolish to believe that think tanks controlled by them can solve this problem.

Ex-headmaster found with child porn is freed after blaming Parkinson's drug

Daily Mail 12th September 2008

Judge Mowat: Absolute discharge

A former headmaster who had thousands of child porn pictures on his computer walked free from court yesterday after blaming the drugs he was taking for Parkinson's disease.

Phillip Carmichael said they made him hypersexually active.

Oxford Crown Court was told that the 8,000 images included one level five photograph - the most serious category - and four level four videos.

Carmichael, 58, who shook as he sat in court, was given an absolute discharge after admitting 11 charges.

Judge Mary Jane Mowat said his case was 'wholly exceptional' and rejected a prosecution appeal that he should at least be put under supervision.

Medical experts called by both defence and prosecution agreed that hypersexuality was a known side-effect of the drugs.

Carmichael, who retired from his primary school on health grounds in 1999, was arrested in September 2007 after police raided his home.

His lawyer Roger Harrison said his client had no culpability because the drugs he was taking had caused him to act in the way he did.

He said: 'It is a tragic case. He had a 27-year teaching career which was impeccable in every way and he had the respect and responsibility of people of a whole range of ages.'

He said Carmichael, of Wantage, Oxfordshire, suffered from Parkinson's disease and Graves' disease, and had been prescribed the drugs Cabergoline and Ropinirole to relieve his symptoms.

Mr Harrison said that hypersexuality - defined as being excessively interested or involved in sexual activity - was a recognised side-effect of such drugs, along with compulsive gambling and compulsive shopping. Cabergoline has since been withdrawn from use.

Describing his client's other symptoms, Mr Harrison told the court: 'He made unnecessary catalogue purchases. He paints and his painting became messy and aggressive.'

Former head teacher Phillip Carmichael, given an absolute discharge for downloading child pornography

The court heard that all the images were downloaded while Carmichael was on the drugs - he stopped taking them after his arrest - except for one of a nine-year-old girl, which he was said to be 'mystified' about.

Judge Mowat told the court she would disregard this as it was entirely separate from the bulk of the images.

She said: 'This is a wholly exceptional and very distressing case. He was not only an ill man at the time, but a man whose medication can be described as ultimately responsible for the commital of these offences. To say that he was to blame would be a complete denial of the reality of the evidence that I see.'

Rejecting the prosecution call for supervision, she said: 'Mr Carmichael is now subject to medical supervision. He has a loyal family and friends and support network. I cannot see that anything would be achieved by engaging the probation service.'

The judge said she did not consider Carmichael was likely to re-offend or that it was necessary to ban him from working with children, as his medical condition prevented him from doing so.

Michelle Elliot, founder of the children's charity Kidscape, called the decision 'a disgrace'.

She said: 'This sends out a completely wrong message - that medication can turn you into a child pornographer. Anybody who is taking medication for this disease will feel insulted.

'It also says that it doesn't matter about the victims. It is one of the most bizarre defences I have heard, and I'm amazed it has succeeded.'

UK Lockdown point of view
One of many cases where a judge has allowed a known pervert to walk free even though his guilt had been established during the trial, perhaps the next person to appear in a court for a fine, charge or maybe not paying their council tax on time should try to see if a second rate excuse will work for them too.

Firearms: cheap, easy to get and on a street near you

Guardian August 30 2008

A Webley revolver pistol. Photograph: Duncan Campbell

The gun shown here, a Webley, is up for sale in London for £150, one of hundreds of such weapons that are easily and cheaply available on the streets of the UK's big cities, a Guardian investigation can reveal.

The variety of weapons on offer in Britain is extensive and includes machine guns and shotguns, as well as pistols and converted replicas. A source close to the trade in illegal weapons contacted by the Guardian listed a menu of firearms that are available on the streets of the capital.

"You can get a clean [unused] 9mm automatic for £1,500, a Glock for a couple of grand and you can even make an order for a couple of MAC-10s," he said. "Or you can get a little sawn-off for £150. They're easy enough to get hold of. You'll find one in any poverty area, every estate in London, and it's even easier in Manchester, where there are areas where the police don't go.

"People who use shotguns tend to be lower down the pecking order. There is less use of sawn-off or full length shotguns, and if a criminal wants street cred, he wants a self-loading pistol, a MAC-10 or an Uzi submachine gun."

This week a man who ran a "factory" for converting replica weapons into working guns was jailed for life. Police believe the products of Grant Wilkinson's workshops were used in more than 50 shootings, including eight murders. His speciality was turning legally purchased MAC-10s into weapons that could fire live rounds, an increasingly common practice.

According to David Dyson, a leading firearms consultant, it is possible to learn through the internet how to make a firearm, given a degree of skill, and converted deactivated weapons also feature in shootings.

But it is the arrival of eastern European weapons that, alongside a homegrown industry in converting them, has contributed to the firearms glut. "There has been an influx from eastern Europe and particularly from Poland, and there are also a lot coming in from people who have served in Afghanistan and Iraq," said the source. "In Liverpool docks, you can put in an order for 10 guns and some grenades and they'll say OK and two weeks later, they will be there - and they are straight goers."

According to Dyson, the latest "weapon of choice" is a Russian 8mm Baikal self-defence pistol, originally used for firing CS gas. "They are legally sold in Germany and won't fire a bullet but they can be converted by removing the partially blocked barrel, and replacing it with a rifled barrel," he said. "After other small alterations, it can then fire 9mm bulleted ammunition. The replacement barrel is longer than the original, and is threaded so that it will accept a silencer, which is commonly sold as part of the package.

"There are hundreds of these floating around and hundreds have been seized," he said. "They look the part as they are based on the Russian military Makarov pistol. If you are a 20-year-old drug dealer and you want a gun, that is what you will get and it will cost about £1,000 to £1,500."

"The trends in firearms are driven by the suppliers," said Dyson. "About two years ago, a supplier brought back hundreds of German-made revolvers, blank-firing pistols which can be bought legally in Germany. They were then converted and new cylinders made. They could then be sold for £700 to £800 when the supplier would have bought them for €60 and spent about £30 on converting them."

Home Office data shows that gun crime is up since last year, despite the recent doubling of sentences for possessing or supplying firearms. There were 9,803 firearms offences in England and Wales in the year to March 2008 with most in London, Manchester and the West Midlands.

Most buyers are involved with drug dealing, the source said. Some are used to rob other dealers in crimes that go unreported, others are used as protection while a deal is under way. "Someone will have a tool and there is always one guy in a posse willing to use it. They will have one guy who doesn't give a fuck.

"Everyone wants to be a gangster now, mainly the kids. You have five or six in a little crew and one of them will be carrying. They want handguns - shotguns are too big and bulky. The sawn-off doesn't look so good but use a machine gun and you get known as a heavy guy. They have them just to be a chap on the street, to pose. Some of them walk around all day with a .38. It's 16-year-olds at it and it's getting like America, silly as it sounds."

In terms of nationalities, the influx of eastern European criminals has changed the balance of power. "Who's using the guns? The [Jamaican] Yardies' value for life was so minimal that they thought nothing of killing people," said the source. "We don't like them, they have no moral code. But it's the Russians and the Polish and Albanians around now. They are bullies. They want to take over the flesh business. The Russians are cold-hearted fuckers. What they have been doing is following the card boys [who put cards advertising prostitutes in phone booths in central London] and then taking the girls hostage, armed if need be."

Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton, who has investigated some of London's most high profile shooting murders, said he believed the age of offenders was getting younger, and sometimes guns seemed to be used for the slightest reason.

"Playground squabbles are now being settled with guns," he said. "And drug dealers are taking a policy decision to get youngsters to carry guns."

He said guns could be purchased for a few hundred pounds in many parts of London. "You can hire a gun for a period and, if the gun has already been used for a murder, the going rate comes down."

While the conviction of Wilkinson was seen as a breakthrough, it is accepted that with the increased traffic between Britain and eastern Europe, stemming the flow of weapons remains an almost impossible task.

"Guns are always available," said Dyson. "You can go to the former Soviet Union, or countries with less stringent regulations than ours, and although British Customs have their successes, many guns appear to be smuggled into the UK."

Amnesties for people to hand over weapons are greeted with scepticism by criminals. "The gun amnesties are meaningless," the source said. "All you get handed in are guns from boys who wanted to be gangsters and then got a job or someone whose mother found it in their bedroom. If I had a gun, I wouldn't take part because, if I got pulled, what would I say - 'Oh, I'm just on my way to the amnesty.' Also if it gets out that you've given in your tool, people will think you're a wrong 'un."

Few professional criminals would keep guns on their premises. "Only silly people keep it in their homes. Normally, you have a 'keeper' a couple of miles away and some of them have been at it for 20 years. It's best to have an old fellow with no previous or a woman. You keep the ammunition separate because you'll get a much heavier sentence if you have them together."

When guns are moved from place to place, a young woman is often used as the courier because there is less risk of her being stopped and searched.

What is not in dispute is the devastating effect that the casual use of a gun over a minor argument can have on dozens of people. In December 2006, Sean "Stretch" Jenkins, 36, an amiable, 6ft 8in window-cleaner from south London, was shot dead at a party in Carshalton. His killer was a cocaine dealer called Joseph Greenland, a volatile man with a quick temper, who had apparently taken offence at something Jenkins said. The men had earlier been at a boxing night at Caesar's in Streatham, where there had been some fighting outside the ring. Greenland had left the party, driven home in his Range Rover, picked up a gun and returned to kill Jenkins in front of at least five witnesses, who were warned not to talk.

None of the immediate witnesses gave evidence against Greenland, who had a reputation for threatening to "annihilate" anyone who crossed him, but there were traces of his DNA on a cigarette end and a wine glass at the party and his bragging about the shooting was to be his downfall. His recourse to a gun, for no other reason than some perceived slight, left Jenkins's six-year-old son without a father and saddened a wide network of friends and family. Greenland was jailed for life last week and will have to serve 30 years before he can be considered for parole.

"We got what we wanted," said the victim's mother, Maureen Jenkins, of the verdict and sentence last month. "I went to the cemetery and said, 'Well, boy, I can put you to rest'."

The detectives investigating the killing and the prosecution team that secured Greenland's conviction were "marvellous", she said. "I shed tears every day and I probably will till the day I die. Why do these people have to kill for nothing? If they want to kill people, why don't they join the army? You don't ever think a shooting will happen in your life. It's all down to guns, just guns."

The Guardian's source said that guns were becoming a first rather than a last recourse. "A gun used to be used as a mediator; now everything is revolved with a gun. It's brought the heat on everyone. Before you would get a two [years jail sentence], now it's a five. It's getting like the US now, like The Wire. It's like a prediction of what will happen here. I think they all think they're playing Grand Theft Auto. It's madness out there."

UK Lockdown point of view
It is unfortunate that there are so many innocent victims whose lives are taken by criminals and that so many of our youth have fallen victim to the Zionist controlled media programming that indoctrinates them with a degenerate psychopathic subculture that should have no place in any civilized society, however to wrongly place the emphasis on the guns is entirely mistaken, problems such as the one highlighted in the above article fail to put the necessary focus on the fact that these guns are imported illegal and are being used by criminals and that it is the criminality concerned that is to blame and not the guns which are simply tools being used by the criminals; put simply the UK has the following major problems with 1) too much crime & 2) border control;
UKlockdown adopts the position that any and every citizen has the right to self defence and that as New Labour alongside the so-called conservatives have been following unofficial orders from the EU to allow crime to flourish while also taking a deliberately relaxed approach to the issue of border control, the duty of defence of our society has been abandoned by this criminal government and it is now the responsibility of all UK citizens to defend ourselves against all criminals and aggressors including the criminal government themselves who have created this mess, with that in mind we must campaign for full restoration of legal gun ownership in the UK.
While UKlockdown does not condone illegal gun ownership it must also be highlighted that to have a society where the only people armed are criminals while the rest of us are disarmed creates a dangerous balance of power and with that in mind UKlockdown will never condemn any law abiding citizen that feels the need to do whatever is necessary for their defence.

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