Dagenham – VIJAY SHAH via MIKE BROOKE and Barking and Dagenham Post

Four people have been sent to prison in the United Kingdom for weapon possession offences after guns were discovered at a house in the town of Dagenham, Greater London, local newspaper the Barking and Dagenham Post reported on its website this past Friday.

More weapons were discovered secreted away in the boot of a car, the newspaper stated. The four individuals, three men and a woman, were put behind bars for a total of 29 years six months for possessing the Firearms, which also came with an unspecified amount of Ammunition.

The criminals, named by the Post as Spencer Tapper, Sandy Hunter, Mahesh Chaitoo and Aymon Popo, were sent down by Maidstone Crown Court in the county of Kent after pleading guilty to the firearms charges on January 29, 2018, according to the newspaper.

Police officers allied with the Trident and Area Crime Command, a branch of the Metropolitan force that covers the Greater London area, raided a house in Dagenham’s Goresbrook Road where they uncovered a handgun with fifteen live rounds of ammunition, and then another twenty rounds in a holdall hidden in a bedroom of the house. Another stash of illegal weaponry was found when a car was pulled over on the M2 motorway, a major road running through Kent from the London region.

Sandy Hunter, 33, of Goresbrook Road in Dagenham, was handed by Maidstone court a two-and-a-half years sentence for assisting an offender. Spencer Tapper, 27, of School Road, also in Dagenham, was sentenced to fifteen years on two charges of possessing a firearm and two charges of possessing ammunition. Aymon Popo, 33, from Romford, was given six-and-a-half years for conspiracy to possess a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life. Mahesh Chaitoo, 28, from Southend-on-Sea, was sentenced to five-and-a-half years for possessing a firearm.

“These defendants were carrying and exchanging firearms across London and Kent,” Det Insp Tim Grinsted said.

‘Firearms pose a significant danger to the public and we are delighted that we’ve been able to take them off the streets.

‘Gun crime of any kind will not be tolerated and we are committed to removing firearms from criminal circulation.”

A gun pickup was arranged where Tapper and Chaitoo were to visit the Kentish town of Ramsgate, but their vehicle was stopped on the M2 motorway where a gun and forty-two rounds of bullets were discovered concealed in the boot of Chaitoo’s car. Police later linked Popo to the investigation in Dagenham. He was charged with “being the conduit who arranged to transport the firearm” and for conspiracy to possess a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life.

SOURCES:

Sherrie Bachell.

“Four are jailed after guns and ammunition found at Dagenham address and in car boot” – Mike Brooke, Barking and Dagenham Post/Archant Community Media Ltd (9 February 2018) http://www.barkinganddagenhampost.co.uk/news/crime-court/four-are-jailed-after-guns-and-ammunition-found-at-dagenham-address-and-in-car-boot-1-5388322

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