A FORMER Hells Angel has escaped a prison sentence after he was found guilty of a serious firearms offence.
Police found a handgun fitted with a silencer and with a full magazine of bullets hidden in the roof rafters of Gary Young's property in Haverfordwest: a house owned by the West Wales Chapter of the Hells Angels and used as a clubhouse.
During his trial Young explained he was a probationary member of the Chapter and had been told to clear up the garage. He had seen the gun and ammunition but left them where they were. However during the raids on Young's home police found an air rifle fitted with a silencer. The gun was more than twice as powerful as allowed before it was classed as a firearm and the owner in need of a licence from the police.
Young admitted possessing a firearm without a certificate, possessing an offensive weapon and possessing three amounts of cannabis, says a report in today's Western Telegraph.
Young's barrister, Francis Jones, said that during his trial "certain people" had sat in the public gallery and had taken exception to Young "naming names" about who was whom within the West Wales Chapter of the Hell's Angels. The outcome, he added, was that Young had been expelled from the chapter.
Judge Huw Davies granted Young, who had been held in custody until that moment, a conditional discharge for two years but told him to pay prosecution costs of £722.
