North Yorkshire arms dealer 'arranged gun shipment'

A British-based arms dealer helped organise the shipment of thousands of guns from China to Nigeria without the necessary licence, a court has heard.

Gary Hyde partly arranged and organised the shipment in 2007 of 80,000 rifles and pistols and 32 million rounds of ammunition.

Southwark Crown Court heard he did not receive permission from the relevant government department.

Mr Hyde, from Derwent near York, denies the charges.

The court was told the shipment involved 40,000 AK47 assault rifles, 30,000 rifles and 10,000 9mm pistols.

Profits 'concealed'
Prosecutor Mukul Chawla QC told the jury his actions were a "deliberate and calculated breach of the law".

"In order to ensure that his criminality, his illegal activities were not drawn to the attention of the UK authorities, he placed and thus concealed profits from his illegal trade into his bank account in Liechtenstein."

Mr Chawla said the shipment required permission from the relevant government authority because it had been partly arranged and organised from the UK by Mr Hyde.

The prosecutor told the jury Mr Hyde had made a statement through his solicitor in November 2009 which said: "I do not believe that I engaged in any activity in the UK which I understood required a licence but where instead I decided to ignore that obligation."

Middle men
Mr Chawla said: "The prosecution case is that the claim that he made in November 2009 is palpably false and that Mr Hyde deliberately engaged in activity within the UK which required a licence."

Mr Hyde carried out his part in the deals with his business partner Karl Kleber, a German national based in Germany, the court was told.

The pair acted as middle men between two Polish companies acting for the Nigerian buyers and Chinese companies, the court heard.

Mr Chawla said commission payments for the deals totalled around $1.3m (£840,000).

The trial continues.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-16491412

Interesting

hmmm,

[size=18pt]WTF?![/size]

Badluk

32 million rounds of ammunition? Nsogbu di kwa na dis country o!

There are no permanent friends, only permanent interests, Seems the UK's concern was just that he did not pay his taxes on the concealed profit.

Profits 'concealed'
Prosecutor Mukul Chawla QC told the jury his actions were a "deliberate and calculated breach of the law".

"In order to ensure that his criminality, his illegal activities were not drawn to the attention of the UK authorities, he placed and thus concealed profits from his illegal trade into his bank account in Liechtenstein."

Who was the buyer? (or buyers, more likely)

you can't touch arms dealers, they are always fronting for government or highly placed politicians

probably the army or police, i hope.

2007 -2009 - MEND   . Am sure part of this cache is still buried somewhere

You guys should better go get yours rather than come here and complain, Naija is finished and there is no going back, nothing will ever remain the same

British sentenced the seller but the buyer (nigerian) is receiving award

VoodooDoll:

There are no permanent friends, only permanent interests,   Seems the UK's concern was just that he did not pay his taxes on the concealed profit.

Short and simple.na becos d guy no pay dem taxes.GBAM GBAM GBAM.

wonderland.

I'm luvin dis country

[img]http://www.sympato.ch/smileys/Winner.gif[/img]

The British government is only worried about the non payment of tax . They are not bothered who buys or what the guns are used for. If the wogs want to kill themselves is not their business - it could of course be business for them.
(Did you notice the figure 1.3? Take note of that bewitched figure).

WHY ARE WE ALL SURPRISED HERE? here in nigeria, this same pdp govt of badluck saw containers of weapons imported from iran and arrests were made but what happened at the end of the day? badluck govt told us that the iranian escaped from police net.
they whole truth is that all these problems are products of pdp so let us just fight pdp out of govt if we want peace and justice to exist in nigeria.

VoodooDoll:

There are no permanent friends, only permanent interests,   Seems the UK's concern was just that he did not pay his taxes on the concealed profit.

He was arrested by the UK Authorities, so how did you come to the conclusion that this was a UK Government inspired move.

Can the UK control the behaviour of a UK businessman operating out of China.

Let us analysis this story logically please.

Thanks.

BTW , the question we should be asking is, who did he sell the arms to

Nigerian government or who

^^^^^^^^^

Frosbel said:
He was arrested by the UK Authorities, so how did you come to the conclusion that this was a UK Government inspired move.

Can the UK control the behaviour of a UK businessman operating out of China.

Let us analysis this story logically please.

Thanks.

I think in your haste to post you came to a wrong conclusion. Nowhere did I say the UK govt conspired with anyone, I merely observed that his charge is "profit concealment". 

If you do a few quick google searches you may notice that normally implies "tax avoidance".  The sale may well be legitimately to Nigeria's Security Services.

If he had paid his taxes, would he have been under the spotlight?

The UK or any other country is not going to look after Nigeria or the nation states within Nigeria, it is left to us to resolve our issues.

Who did he sell to?

nagoma:

The British government is only worried about the non payment of tax . They are not bothered who buys or what the guns are used for. If the wogs want to kill themselves is not their business - it could of course be business for them.
(Did you notice the figure 1.3? Take note of that bewitched figure).

The guy probably did not violate any British law and even if he did, his guilt will be almost impossible to prove in court except for making money and not paying taxes.

This is by far the easiest way to prosecute people for organized crimes. You trace money in accounts to them or deduce it from their standard of living, and then compare that to their claimed income on their taxes. If the EFCC takes this approach, they will be able to prosecute 99% of politicians because you don't have to prove how they diverted/profited from the money meant for the people.

Who were the arms supplied to? Looks like that part is being avoided!

VoodooDoll:

^^^^^^^^^

I think in your haste to post you came to a wrong conclusion. Nowhere did I say the UK govt conspired with anyone, I merely observed that his charge is "profit concealment". 

If you do a few quick google searches you may notice that normally implies "tax avoidance".  The sale may well be legitimately to Nigeria's Security Services.

If he had paid his taxes, would he have been under the spotlight?

The UK or any other country is not going to look after Nigeria or the nation states within Nigeria, it is left to us to resolve our issues.

He couldn't have paid his taxes because he would have had to explain the source of the income. Same reason why drug dealers can't pay taxes.

sammoR:

Who were the arms supplied to? Looks like that part is being avoided!

This question can only be answered if the guy is found guilty and then offered a deal. Why should he disclose who the buyers are at this point? The authorities/intelligence agencies will already have an answer to that question but probably can't be prove it in court until the guy turns on the buyers.

Also, UK authorities don't have jurisdiction over Nigerians in Nigeria unless the Nigerian in question violates some UK law.

Now i know how the Niger delta militants got their arms and ammunitions.

Seriously, we need those arms here now in Nigeria. ARMS NEEDED URGENTLY, ARMS DEALERS ARE WELCOMED

Quite Interesting. We are watching for the court's ruling

chibest5:

You guys should better go get yours rather than come here and complain, Naija is finished and there is no going back, nothing will ever remain the same

Glad he was caught, the arms trade is the height of wickedness.

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WTF? Now that's good he was caught,
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