From: "David M", [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Electronic Telegraph
ISSUE 2098 Wednesday 21 February 2001
Pardoned drug dealer jailed for selling guns and ammo
A CONVICTED drug dealer, who served only 11 months of an 18-year term
after receiving a royal pardon, was jailed yesterday for his part in
gun-trafficking.
John Haase received 13 years after pleading guilty to selling illegal guns
and ammunition, including an Uzi submachine gun and Magnum revolver. Haase,
51, was told by Judge Bryn Holloway at Liverpool Crown Court that without
the police intervention the weapons and ammunition would have found their
way into the hands of dangerous people.
Haase, who ran a security firm, of Clubmoor, Liverpool, received seven years
for gun-running and six years after pleading guilty to a second charge which
cannot be reported for legal reasons. As he was led from the dock, Haase
shouted at the judge: "You have had me over. You and the counsel. I never
pleaded guilty on this basis."
Heath Grimes, 26, of Wavertree, Liverpool, was jailed for four years after
admitting transferring the guns and ammunition. A third man, Walter
Kirkwood, 46, of Renton, Dumbarton, Scotland, was given a three and a
half-year term after pleading guilty to attempting to transfer the weapons
north of the border.
Haase was previously freed from prison in July 1996 after serving only 11
months of his 18-year sentence for heroin smuggling and spending two years
on remand. His sentence had been reduced to five years on the advice of the
then Home Secretary, Michael Howard, who exercised the royal prerogative.
Lord Carlile QC, defending, said yesterday that Haase had given a huge
amount of information to the authorities. The then Home Secretary, not a man
"given to bouts of light handedness or light headedness", had recommended
the use of royal prerogative on the basis of the information.
David Steer QC, prosecuting, said Customs officers bugged the headquarters
of Haase's security firm, Big Brother, in Great Howard Street, Kirkdale.
Officers filmed a meeting outside a Liverpool cafe between Grimes and
Kirkwood.
They watched as Grimes passed a sports bag through a car window and followed
the vehicle to Kirkby where it stopped at traffic lights. Armed police
surrounded the vehicle and recovered the bag, containing an Uzi submachine
gun, Smith and Wesson .357 Magnum revolver and rounds of ammunition.
Mr Steer said Haase was arrested more than a month later in October 1999
when he arrived at Liverpool Lime Street Station from London. Grimes was
detained at his home in Liverpool a day later. A search of a Big Brother
office in Liverpool's Stanley Market uncovered more weaponry including a
double-barrelled sawn-off shotgun, a Colt full-loading pistol and
ammunition.
In mitigation, Lord Carlile said the gun selling was a "one-off,
opportunistic transaction to a specified customer". He said: "John Haase has
a certain notoriety on Merseyside. It is all too easy to assume that
everything he does is somewhere near the top of the Premier League. If I can
be forgiven . . . it is more akin to the position of Everton than to the
position of Liverpool at the present time."
Commenting afterwards, Assistant Chief Constable Bernard Hogan-Howe, of
Merseyside Police, said the force was determined to take guns off the
streets. He said: "In recent weeks, the force has shown its commitment to
tackling firearms-related crime through high visibility policing operations.
This case highlights the good work that is being carried out by the force
behind the scenes and that we are unable to talk about."
Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org
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