Friday, 18th December 2009

UKIP have welcomed the suspended sentence given to former soldier Paul Clarke who handed in to police a gun he found in his garden.

Mr Clarke was facing a minimum five-year term under sentencing guidelines after being found guilty of possession of a firearm, but the judge at Reading Crown Court gave the 27-year-old a suspended one-year sentence instead.

UKIP MEP Leader Nigel Farage said:"The judge's decision on sentencing in this case has been a rare outbreak of commonsense.

"No useful purpose would have been served at all in giving Paul Clark the minimum tariff of five years.

"The whole concept of strict liability within this particular piece of legislation needs to be revisited and we will be writing to every MP asking for a re-think on how the law is applied.

"This case raises a serious question. What if you do find a rusty, old shotgun? Do you hand it in to the police, which is no doubt the right thing to do, or do you simply walk on by?

"It's this uncertainty that needs to be cleared up quickly."

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