Dealer found guilty of supplying guns and bullets linked to South Yorkshire crime scenes

Paul Edmunds, aged 66, exploited loopholes to import guns into the country and turned his home into an ammunition factory to make bullets to fit antique guns.

Three of his weapons were used in murders, including a shooting in a London nightclub, jurors in his trial were told.

The registered gun dealer, from Gloucestershire, sold to a middle-man - Mohinder Surdhar, 56, from Birmingham - who then sold the guns and weapons to criminal gangs.

When he was arrested in 2015, Edmunds told detectives he was 'not responsible for the actions' of those who used his guns.

He was found guilty of conspiracy to supply firearms and ammunition and smuggling banned Colt handguns into the UK from the United States.

Jurors also convicted the pensioner of possessing a prohibited air pistol and perverting the course of justice by filing down a bullet-making tool to destroy potential evidence.

His co-accused, Mohinder Surdhar, 56, from Birmingham, admitted conspiracy to supply firearms and ammunition between 2009 and 2015 before Edmunds' trial.

Opening the case, prosecutor Andrew Fisher QC said 'tell-tale' marks on ammunition found at crime scenes linked the bullets to tools used by Edmunds.

In all, 17 criminally-linked weapons recovered by the police are known to have been imported by Edmunds, while around 1,000 bullets connected to him have been recovered from crime scenes in the West Midlands, London, Greater Manchester, Nottinghamshire, South Yorkshire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire, West Yorkshire and Derbyshire.

The crime scenes included around 50 gang-related shootings between 2010 and 2016.

Details of the incidents in South Yorkshire have not yet been released.

Edmunds was snared after experts at the National Ballistics Intelligence Service carried out an analysis, uncovering the growing trend of pre-war pistols used in a rash of shootings.

Detective Constable Phil Rodgers, who led the investigation, said Edmunds' and Surdhar's actions 'have had a devastating impact on communities by fuelling violent crime, leading to fear and bloodshed."

The men are to be sentenced next month.