Businessman is 'too irresponsible' for shotgun licence (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)
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Cirencester man took a 'slapdash and casual' attitude towards gun safety
9:00am Saturday 4th August 2012 in News
Maturin Mackenzie-Hill leaves Gloucester Crown Court after being told he is too irresponsible to have a shotgun licence
A COTSWOLD businessman has been told he is too irresponsible to be allowed to keep shotguns.
Maturin Mackenzie-Hill, of The Norman Arch, Cirencester, had his shotgun licence revoked in 2008 following his second drink drive conviction.
At the time he was living in Sussex and police told him if he was a potential danger in a car he could also pose a risk to the public if he kept guns.
He reapplied for a licence when he moved to Cirencester earlier this year but was turn down by police on the same grounds.
Now he has had an appeal against the decision thrown out.
Judge Euan Ambrose, sitting with two magistrates, said when he lost his licence in 2008 he had been “slapdash and casual” in disposing of the weapons.
"He has not taken the security of guns as seriously as he should have done.”
Judge Euan Ambrose at Gloucester Crown Court
At the time he had said he planned to hand the guns, a .410 and a 12-bore, to his brother Rupert, who lives in South Cerney and has a shotgun certificate.
But the judge said that instead of handing the shotguns over himself, he handed them to his girlfriend Jane Brockway, 47, of Todenham, near Moreton-in-Marsh, and asked her to take them to his brother.
When she tried Rupert was on holiday so she took them home with her and stored them under her bed.
She did not have a shotgun certificate so was herself committing an offence and was arrested and cautioned.
Judge Ambrose said: “This whole transfer process strikes us as very slapdash and casual. What it did was to put these guns into an insecure place.
“We are unable to shake off the feeling that he has not taken the security of guns as seriously as he should have done.”
Mr Mackenzie-Hill said he was an experienced user of shotguns but realised his previous convictions had led to the police decision.
But he said he had learnt his lesson and was now more responsible than he had been.
