School Boy Accused of Possessing a Firearm - NFA

Case study summary

Our client was a 12-year old boy who was arrested for possession of a firearm. The firearm in question was a BB-gun. It is not a criminal offence to possess a BB-gun and so, one of our expert defence lawyers attended the interview and ensured that no further action was taken.

Case study

Our client was a 12-year old boy who was arrested alongside his cousin for an allegation of possession of a firearm. They were taken to a police cell before being released and asked to return to the station at a later date to be interviewed. Our client's father contacted us and asked us to represent his son at the interview.

The allegation was that our client and his cousin had pointed a gun at a member of the public at a petrol station in Manchester.

One of our expert criminal defence lawyers attended the police station and obtained further information from the interviewing officer about the gun in question. It transpired that the gun was bright green and clearly a toy BB-gun which is not a criminal offence to possess. There was also no evidence that the BB-gun had been pointed at a member of the public. The police intended to refer our client to the Youth Offenders' Team.

We were appalled that two young boys had been arrested and that the police wanted to label them as youth offenders for something which was not a criminal offence. We did not agree with the police's decision to refer them to the Youth Offender's Team and instead argued that the case should be closed as soon as possible.

We provided our advice for the interview and ensured that our concerns with regards to the arrest, interview and overall treatment of our young client were recorded prior to the interview commencing.

The case was closed four weeks later when the police confirmed that they would not be taking any further action. Our client and his father were extremely relieved by the outcome and were grateful for our support.