German gun fanatic cannot be deported after four-year legal battle

02 September 2023 , 19:36

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Manfred Kurz was granted a UK residence permit in 1986

An ex-soldier who brought guns and thousands of rounds of ammo into the UK cannot be sent back to his native Germany.

Firearms fanatic Manfred Kurz, 65, was jailed for seven years after bullets fell into the hands of crooks. In one of the biggest raids of its kind in London, police seized guns and 3,100 bullets which Kurz had acquired using his German firearms licence.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who has called firearm possession a “scourge on society”, wanted to deport Kurz after he was granted early release. But in a four-year legal battle he successfully appealed against the move. And in July an asylum tribunal rejected a final bid to kick him out. Though imported legally, Kurz’s haul was later deemed illegal for private use. He held on to it and was sentenced in 2019 after admitting possession of firearms, firearm components, ammunition and explosive substances.

More than 3,000 rounds of ammunition was seized during the Met's raid

Croydon Crown Court in South London heard a network of criminals – including one with direct links to Kurz – sold bullets from the haul to British gangsters. Kurz did not directly sell the ammo himself.

Police said the investigation was “one of the Met’s largest-ever seizures of ammunition and explosive substances in recent times”. Father-of-three Kurz, a builder in the Croydon area, was granted a UK residence permit in 1986 with his now-ex wife.

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At the July hearing, government lawyers argued that Kurz still posed a “medium” risk of harm to the public.

But Judge Susan Kebede ruled the Home Office did not show him “to be a sufficiently serious threat to society to justify the decision”. The judge agreed that deportation would not be “proportionate” given Kurz’s family ties in the UK.

Kurz was contacted for comment. The Home Office said: “Our priority will always be to keep the public safe and we are clear foreign criminals should be deported wherever legal and practical to do so.”

Ben Turner