Guns seized....again

[walesdave]

I appreciate the kind words and advice and I'm truly not being 'offended' about it but I rather this doesn't turn into a discussion around the misper call.
Cheers

[walesdave]

Wow.....

I've been in initial contact with a legal beagle regarding my guns being taken. He's not 'local' but it appears the Gwent Inspector has a 'reputation' already.

I'll not mention names at the moment but in the beagles opinion "my experience of her [Inspector Jxxxx] she is the worse licensing manager in the country at the moment"

[Pippin89]

Wow.....

I've been in initial contact with a legal beagle regarding my guns being taken. He's not 'local' but it appears the Gwent Inspector has a 'reputation' already.

I'll not mention names at the moment but in the beagles opinion "my experience of her [Inspector Jxxxx] she is the worse licensing manager in the country at the moment"

I guess that's almost good news right? More chance that it will be seen that she's out of order and a court siding in your favour.

[Blackstuff]

Don't get your hopes up with just a reputation. The inquest into the Horden shootings found that of Durhams FLD manager and the department as a whole was, lets say 'lacking', and afterwards it was just business as usual!

[walesdave]

Quick update.

Gwent's 'Professional Standards' have come down 100% on the side of the FEO manager. The FEO manager did throw her FEO under the bus by blaming him for not mentioning the 'stress in the home' reason while removing my guns - a reason she never mentioned either in any of her emails so I don't know why she's not referring herself for 'management advice'.

Essentially the Inspectors response to the DDA complaint is that her decision to remove my guns was NOT down to my cancer diagnosis on its' own but was due to the 'stress in the home' and my wife's' previously undeclared mental health issues.

Problem I have with this:
- the 'argument' my wife and I had was marked as an insignificant non-event by the police who attended to make a welfare check.
- my wife's MH problems were disclosed to Gwent FEO at least three years ago (my guns were removed for a period due to this); a risk assessment by the then FEO manager, including input from my wife's MH professional, led to my guns being returned. The Inspector has obviously not looked at my NFLMS or local intelligence records
- there was ZERO mention of the 'stress at home' reason until AFTER I made the DDA complaint; the FEO Inspector is 100% in CYA mode and is retrospectively changing her story

So, off to the P&CC to ask for a review of the Professional Standards decision that the FEO Inspector did nothing wrong.

[walesdave]

And the saga continues....

Police & Crime Commissioner has reviewed my complaint, and parroted Gwent Polices decision word for word.

Guess it's time for legal action - as a Disability Discrimination complaint and not a Firearms Licensing complaint.

[David TS]

If a formal complaint was made (and I presume yes as their professional standards department reviewed it), you do have the option of referring it to the IOPC.

https://www.policeconduct.gov.uk/compla ... nd-appeals

There is a 28 day limit on submitting a referral.

Having said that, I have extensive experience of raising complaints with a certain police force, appealing their professional standards decisions with the IOPC, and the IOPC being somewhat lacking in their willingness to upheld the appeal. Nevertheless, I did have a number of firearms related complaints upheld against several police officers from that force, so it is possible.

It is a long drawn out time consuming process, good luck.

If you want a firearms savvy solicitor I would highly recommend Andrew Broome from VHS Fletchers, and for a barrister, Nick Doherty - both are shooters.

[dodgyrog]

Don't rely on the IOPC! I speak from personal experience.

[walesdave]

I've already spoke to the IOPC and they said they wouldn't take a case on where professional standards had 'nominated' the local P&CC to review the professional standards outcome. Seems very odd thinking but it was just a first line IOPC call handler who told me this so it might be worth another go.

There's a local solicitors firm who has 'actions against the police' as one of their areas of law. I've left my details so hopefully a solicitor will call me back and let me know if they can take this on and, more importantly, how much it will cost!

Turns out there's a legal costs version of 'GoFundMe' (https://www.crowdjustice.com/ which I might give a try once I know the sums involved.

Anyway, Radiotherapy starts on Monday for 5 weeks - I might get lucky and end up putting all this behind me ....or on the other hand....

[Dark Skies]

Don't rely on the IOPC! I speak from personal experience.

True. It's staffed by ex-coppers, and they tend to bend over backwards to avoid finding fault with the police. Which, of course, is their main raison d'être, part of the smoke and mirrors that passes for transparency when dealing with the authorities these days.

https://novaramedia.com/2022/11/21/why- ... dependent/