Esher fraudster caught with CS gas canister and stun guns loses appeal against convictions against firearms offences John Davies

Esher fraudster caught with CS gas canister and stun guns loses appeal against convictions against firearms offences

John Davies was locked up for three years for eight firearms offences in September last year

SHARE

COMMENTS

Alexander Brock

10:16, 6 OCT 2017

Davies was originally convicted of eight firearms offences at Kingston Crown Court last year (Image: TMS)

SHARE

Get Daily updates directly to your inbox

Enter your email

+ Subscribe

A convicted fraudster and academic caught with a CS gas canister and stun guns in his Esher home has lost an appeal against his convictions.

John Davies, who has a doctorate, had the illegal weapons stashed in a bedroom and his garden shed.

The 60-year-old, of Mill Road, was locked up for three years after being found guilty of eight firearms offences at Kingston Crown Court in September last year.

His sentence was ordered to run consecutively to a 12-year jail term he was already serving for a £5 million gift aid fraud.

READ MORE

Latest News From The Courts

'It was just banter'

Tribute to 'loving' grandmother

Gang ringleader jailed

Latest Robyn Mercer case developments

Davies challenged his firearms convictions at the Court of Appeal, in London, with his lawyers arguing they were "unsafe".

They said there was "fresh evidence" which would have supported his defence at trial and could have led to his acquittal.

But his complaints were rejected by three senior judges on Thursday (October 5), who said the evidence cast no doubt on the jury's verdicts.

The court heard police searched Davies' home in July 2012 and found a CS gas canister and six stun guns - including three disguised as mobile phones.

A further search, in January 2014, turned up another stun gun in a bag in his garden shed.

Davies denied the weapons were his and initially said he didn't know how they had got there, but that he had let many people stay at his home over the years.

However, he later changed his story and claimed they belonged to an ex-girlfriend who must have left them in the house.

But, dismissing his appeal, Lord Justice McCombe said the evidence against Davies was "strong".

The new information was not likely to have made any difference to the jury's verdicts, he added.

Sitting with Mr Justice Gilbart and Judge Simon Bourne-Arton QC, he concluded: "There was a strong case for the Crown on the basis of the searches alone."