One law for us one law for them

If you stole a gun and sold it on you would be open to a few different charges the cops could hit you with. One would be the obvious one of theft. Then handling stolen goods . But most of all possession of a firearm.And if you had done this with a number of guns over a period of time then that would put you up with arms dealing and gun running.But if you had done all of this while being the person employed to put a stop to this sort of thing then you would think that would warrant you being hit with all of the above charges plus any thing else they could think up while they were throwing the book at you.
Enter Maurice Allen and Damien Cobain. two enterprising gun runners from no less a place than Raoul Moat's local force of Northumbrbia police.Both served as firearms inquiry officers.it was their job to go and interview anyone who applied for a gun permit. While doing this they would mention they just happened to know of a gun for sale. This would have been a gun previously recovered by police and now due for destruction. that begs the question of How did they get access to them,as one part of the division cannot simply walk into the evidence room and remove things without the complicit help of the officer in charge of that department.And that raises the possibility of corruption on a scale of...well you think about that.
But at the end of the day they were caught because like all criminals who think they are super smart they are only so in their own minds.A farmer burgled when asked for the gun stolen from his farms serial number said."You should know I bought it off your lot".
This finally exposed the scam these two had been running. But the biggest scam of all was the sentence they got. remember the automatic five years for possession of a firearm? No they didn't get five years.Allen was sentenced to 51 weeks, which was suspended for two years, and Cobain to 40 weeks, suspended for 18 months.
take note legal eagles conducting appeals for those sentenced to five years for this.It sort of makes Moats story plausible.