Guns on sale at newsagent's shop

Aug 15 2007 Sarah Chapman, Liverpool Daily Post

A MAN who sold guns, ammunition and stolen cars from his father’s newsagent’s shop has been jailed for seven years.

Nabeel Zindani boasted to his customer, an undercover police officer, that the bullets he was selling were “cop killers”, Liverpool Crown Court heard.

Steven Ball, prosecuting, told the court Zindani first started offering the detective stolen cars after meeting him at the newsagents in Hawthorne Road, Bootle, but later started trading in deadly weapons.

Mr Ball told the court the officer bought a Rover 75 for £200, a Lexus for £300 and a Vauxhall Frontera for £250 between January and March last year.

The following month, Zindani offered his contact, known only as Ray, ammunition and he told him he had a revolver, an air pistol, which he later bought for £80 along with some cartridges.

Mr Ball told the court in May, Zindani called the police officer and, speaking in code, said he had between 700 and 800 rounds of ammunition.

He said the officer handed over £400 in cash for the bullets, which were designed to expand on impact.

Mr Ball said: “A transcript from June 23 shows the defendant said, ‘These 0.45s will go straight through a vest. Cop killers, aren’t they?’

“On August 10, Ray phoned the defendant and he said he would soon be in possession of a gun, which he referred to as The Big One.”

The court heard Zindani called the gun a Sarah Connor, referring to the gun-toting heroine of the Terminator films with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Zindani later presented his customer with a sawn-off double barreled shotgun and 10 12-bore cartridges designed for use with the weapon and sold them for £350.

Zindani, of Hawthorne Road, Bootle, pleaded guilty to six charges of handling stolen goods, two charges of possessing prohibited firearms and four charges of possessing ammunition without a certificate.

Ian Whitehurst, defending, told the court: “He was acting out of character, out of his depth and extremely stupidly.

“He’s jeopardised the future with his partner.”

Judge Gerald Clifton told him: “You were trafficking arms and ammunition, well-knowing, in my view, that they may be used in the course of crime and well-knowing that there could be lethal results.

“Some of the ammunition matched the guns you were prepared to sell. You were offering a ready kit that would kill or maim.”