Policeman jailed for stealing amnesty gun
A policeman who gave away a pistol which was handed in
during a guns amnesty following the Dunblane School
massacre has been jailed for six months.
Desmond Pearson, a Constable with the South Yorkshire
force, had been found guilty at an earlier trial at
Hull Crown Court of stealing the .22semi-automatic pistol.
Pearson, 53, of Rossington, Doncaster, was also convicted
of stealing two other guns, and of three charges of
possessing a firearm without a certificate, one charge of
stealing cash, and one of false accounting.
Judge Robert Moore sentenced him to six months in prison
at Sheffield Crown Court after reading reports. He told
Pearson he had been in gross breach of public trust.
Pearson was given the gun in March 1997 by a man whom he
later contacted to ask if he could sell the pistol to a
gun club. Instead, Pearson, who was the district firearms
licensing officer for the Doncaster area, gave the gun to
another man.
Mr James Sampson, prosecuting, had told the court that
Pearson stole money he had collected from people renewing
their firearms certificates and falsified receipts to
cover his tracks.
When he was arrested and interviewed, Pearson produced
envelopes containing cash and claimed they had been in
his briefcase.
"This was a desperate man trying to get out of his
dishonesty, digging a hole deeper as he lied more and
more," said Mr Sampson.
After the case, South Yorkshire Police spokesman Jim
Greensmith said: "Since the time the offences were
committed the force has changed procedures in relation
to firearms that are handed to us to ensure we have a
safe and secure storage system.
"We have gone to great lengths to ensure this is a robust
and fully monitored process."
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