Home Page Haverhill News

A 48-year-old man has today been sentenced to a total of three years' imprisonment after a number of firearms were discovered at a property in Haverhill.

Karl Dowling, of Bramble Close, was arrested on February 10 after police went to his home address and recovered a number of weapons and ammunition.

During searches of the premises officers found a grenade and were forced to set up a cordon and evacuate neighbouring properties as a precautionary measure while the Bomb Disposal Squad attended and made the item safe.

While Dowling was a firearms licence holder many of the weapons found were not covered under it and therefore were not being kept legally.

On March 30 Dowling was charged with 21 firearms offences and at Ipswich Crown Court in July he pleaded guilty to a number of offences including unlawful possession of prohibited automatic firearms, hand guns and rifles as well as numerous ammunition offences which covered the 4,000 rounds of assorted ammunition found in his home. He was sentenced for the offences today.

Suffolk Police firearms examiner Allan Cole, who attended the scene and subsequently examined and classified the 250 exhibits in this case, said: “We would like to take this opportunity to urge anyone who has a firearm and does not have a licence or is concerned that one or more of their firearms is not covered by a current licence to contact the Firearms Licensing Department and avoid something like this happening again.”

Norfolk and Suffolk Police collaborated firearms licensing units said they actively encourage this type of enquiry, and stress that these genuine approaches will always be dealt with in a sympathetic and professional manner.

Anyone who wishes to contact the firearms licensing unit can do so on 101.