A FORMER special constable who supplied 40,000 AK47 assault rifles to Nigeria without a licence has been ordered to hand over his £782,000 profit or face a further four years in jail.
Gary Hyde, 43, was jailed for seven years in December after being convicted of also helping to ship 30,000 other rifles, 10,000 pistols and 32 million rounds of ammunition from China to Africa in 2007.
It is understood the weapons were bought for the Nigerian police force, as part of a £6.2m contract.
The deal between the two countries' governments was lawful, but Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith said middleman Hyde, who served as a special constable with North Yorkshire Police for seven years and legitimately ran the York Guns business for several years, was undone by his greed.
Hyde, of Newton-on-Derwent, near York, failed to apply for a licence to take part in the deal, fearing it would be refused, but was attracted by the enormous profits, the judge said.
Hyde was also found guilty of one count of concealing criminal property between March 2006 and December 2008 after he was alleged to have hidden the profits in a bank in Liechtenstein.
At Southwark Crown Court, Judge Loraine-Smith told Hyde he had six months to pay up.
No comments:
Post a Comment