THE MACHINE GUN was in fact a deactivated weapon, supposedly rendered harmless, but brought back into use by a criminal armourer. This gun, in fact, contributed to a debate that led to a tightening of the firearms legislation about deactivated weapons.
On 17 August 1993 Flying Squad officers from Tower Bridge were conducting observations on two men suspected of armed robberies in south-east London. The officers witnessed the suspects robbing a Security Express van in Blackfen, near Sidcup, Kent, where £17,000 in cash was stolen at gunpoint by Steven Farrer, who then ran to a vehicle driven by Anthony Pendrigh. As the Flying Squad car chased the men, Farrer leaned out of the car’s window and fired seventeen rounds of machine-gun fire at the pursuing police. One bullet bounced off the windscreen wiper arm, went through the windscreen and into the roof of the car, narrowly missing Detective Constable ‘Jumbo’ Redford. Another round grazed the head of Detective Sergeant Michael Stubbs, who narrowly avoided death. The machine gun jammed and Farrer continued firing with a magnum handgun, which hit the engine of the police car and immobilised it. Farrer was then seen abandoning the getaway car and fired at two unarmed uniform officers. Farrer and Pendrigh were arrested soon afterwards in a nearby house where the cash was recovered along with three loaded firearms. They were charged with fourteen armed robberies, including five where shots had been fired. At the Old Bailey on 2 June 1994, they pleaded guilty and were sentenced to eighteen years’ imprisonment. Detective Sergeant Barry Nicholson took charge of the case.
Nine years later, in 2003, Farrer was released. He was not rehabilitated however. On 8 August 2005, a cash-in-transit van was robbed of £68,000 in New Eltham by a suspect with a handgun who was wearing a motorcycle crash helmet. Information led the Flying Squad to search a garage in Greenwich where they found a stolen Vauxhall Astra van, inside which was a motorcycle helmet, a Ruger pistol and some £20 notes with a security dye on them. These were forensically linked to Farrer but the Crown Prosecution Service decided against a prosecution. Farrer would often leave his house at 5 a.m. and would regularly spend hours watching cash-in-transit deliveries. He now worked with a new accomplice, Mustafa Hunter, taking steps to evade surveillance and planning potential escape routes. On Thursday, 19 October 2006, Farrer left his home address very early in the morning, carrying a grey holdall, and drove off in a stolen VW Golf with Hunter following in another car. They later drove to Charlton village. Farrer remained in his stolen car whilst Hunter waited at a bus stop for the arrival of a cash-in-transit van. The security van was, however, unaccountably late in arriving and the two men seemed to be abandoning their plan for the day. With the evidence available of all their preparations, however, the Flying Squad moved in to arrest them. Farrer rammed his car between two police vehicles, but lost control and crashed into a gatepost. Farrer and Hunter were both arrested and their holdall was found to contain a full-face motorcycle helmet, a two-way radio, a scanner to pick up police radio messages, a plastic bottle of flammable liquid, CS gas and a loaded handgun. Both were charged with conspiracy to rob and, on 12 October 2007, were each sentenced to sixteen years’ imprisonment.
The disregard for life shown by armed robbers and the traumatic effect on the families of victims, was also illustrated on 10 November 1976 at 12.25 p.m. when an armed robber walked in to Barclays Bank, Upper Ham Road, Richmond, went to the cashier nearest to the door, pointed a sawn-off shotgun at 20-year-old Angela Woolliscroft and demanded money. She sensibly complied and handed over £2,500 in banknotes, but the man then callously fired the gun at her through the safety glass and killed her. He drove away in an Austin A40 car that he had stolen from Bentall’s car park, Kingston, but returned it to the same space in the car park. A coat that he had used to cover the gun was found to belong to the owner of the car.
After extensive inquiries by Detective Chief Superintendent James Sewell, during which information was received that a Michael Hart had been seen to put a shotgun into the back of a car, Hart was arrested, but gave alibi evidence. Shotgun cartridges found at his home were found to be of a different type to that used in the murder, but closer inspection revealed that they did in fact match and had been mislabelled by the manufacturer. Instead of normal birdshot, the cartridges contained heavier trap shot pellets, which penetrated the cashier’s protective screen more easily. Hart told the police that he had thrown the weapon into the River Thames at Hampton Court after the robbery. He claimed that the gun had discharged by accident, but ballistics evidence demonstrated that it required 5lb finger pressure to operate the trigger. During his time in custody, Hart tried to hang himself. In November 1977 he was sentenced at the Old Bailey to life imprisonment with the recommendation that he should not serve less than twenty-five years.
The bank screen, ammunition, gun and the coat are in the museum’s collection.