10 November 2023 , 20:19
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An ex-RAF mechanic tried to buy two hand grenades from the US using an encrypted message app.
Alex Piatt-Green boasted they had “landed” when he received the shipment he believed was two hand grenades. The 52-year-old used the messaging app Telegram and paid for the explosives using more than £500 in Bitcoin.
He didn’t know as he messaged the seller, telling him: "If everything goes well I will be back for handguns and rifles,” that the National Crime Agency had already intercepted his package, and replaced the fragmentation explosives with two dummies.
Then, when in court, the 52-year-old desperately tried to claim he was acting out a “fantasy” buying them, something Mr Justice Jeremy Baker dismissed, saying the purchase was in the “context of serious organised crime”. However, he later pleaded guilty to attempting to possess an explosive substance on or before January 26.
During a hearing at the Old Bailey, the senior judge sentenced Piatt-Green to six years in prison with a further two years on extended licence. The court had previously heard how Piatt-Green ordered the weapons late last year to be delivered to his home in Redditch, Worcestershire, in January, making the arrangements on Telegram.
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But US authorities intercepted the consignment and found two M67 hand grenades inside legitimate goods. The UK’s National Crime Agency then arranged the delivery of a dummy parcel to Piatt-Green, as he was kept under surveillance. When the dummy package arrived at Piatt-Green’s house he told the seller they had “landed”.
Prosecutor Peter Ratcliff told the court the defendant had weapons training and had handled munitions while working in the military. Giving evidence, Piatt-Green had claimed he had been under the influence of a "cocktail of drugs and alcohol" when he paid for the grenades.
He said: "It is wrong and it is the thrill of doing something very wrong that will magnify with my current state of mind and my use of drugs and alcohol. It was extremely thrilling." He also claimed messages with the seller were "all part of the pantomime" and he had dumped the delivery in a bin near his home.
But his claims were rubbished and Mr Ratliff said he had been trying to establish a relationship with an arms dealer. Mr Ratliff said: "This was a very deliberate attempt to secure munitions by a defendant with a very real interest in establishing a relationship with a munitions supplier. This was not a fantasyland at all."
Sentencing, Mr Justice Jeremy Baker told Piatt-Green: "The prosecution do not suggest you intended the grenades for terrorist purposes or to provide them to those who would provide them for those purposes. However, the prosecution did not accept your basis of plea and said it would be open to the court to determine you were working as part of a group seeking to acquire dangerous weapons."
He found the defendant had committed the offence "as part of a group" and that it involved the use of encrypted messages as part of a deception. He told the defendant the offence was so serious that only a prison sentence could be justified.