A man who bought a deactivated submachine gun and altered the weapon was jailed for five years yesterday.
Paul Markie, who was freed early from a previous jail sentence for firearms offences, was caught with ammunition and component parts for a prohibited weapon.
A judge told Markie at the High Court in Edinburgh: “You hoped to modify the firearm and sell it on to a dealer for profit.”
Lady Poole said there was no suggestion that Markie intended to use the Second World War sten gun, but a conviction for firearms offences must attract a prison sentence.
The judge ordered that he should serve 175 days of the unexpired part of his last sentence before he begins his latest jail term.
Lady Poole said: “I take the view it is a very serious matter that while in the community but still on licence, you reoffended and did so by committing firearms offences.”
The court heard that police received intelligence that Markie, 60, had bought a deactivated weapon.
He was traced in Dundee and detained and a search was carried out at his home on the city’s Albert Street.
Boxes containing blank ammunition were found along with component parts for the gun.
Unemployed Markie, who followed proceedings by a video link to prison, admitted unlawfully possessing the ammunition on June 24, having been sentenced to five years imprisonment at the High Court in Glasgow in 2016.
He also pled guilty to having the component parts of a prohibited weapon on the same day – an offence which carries a minimum sentence of five years imprisonment unless exceptional circumstances could be shown.
Defence solicitor advocate Chris Fyffe said: “The accused’s position is relatively straightforward. He purchased the item as a deactivated firearm.
“He intended to make it into a blank firer, thinking he could then sell it on to another dealer and increase the value of the item.
“It was an act of folly on his part, which he accepts.”
Mr Fyffe said Markie had fallen foul of firearms legislation by replacing the deactivated barrel with a blank firing barrel.
The court granted an order for the forfeiture of the seized items.
Markie was jailed in April 2016 after he was found with a Smith and Wesson pistol and ammunition in his work locker in Dundee.
Neighbours of the flat where he lived in Albert Street previously said they were aware he collected firearms and had often feared there could be an incident with the weapons.
One man, who asked not to be named, said: “Initially I was shocked to learn about his stash of weapons and ammunition.
“You don’t like to think of that amount of firearms in a flat in the building you live in.”
