FAB 3: latest work of the Fieldsports Advice Bureau

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Layla McGuigan from the FAB Fieldsports Advice Bureau says what she has been advising members who are battling police firearms departments against certificate revocations and renewal refusals.   To get access to Layla's advice, become a Fieldsports member and fund our fight for fieldsports in the media  https://fieldsportschannel.tv/membership/ - for full details  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfoEqIFtqfc6xBV185DQnBw/ to join for YouTube membership  http://www.patreon.com/fieldsportschannel for the same via Patreon  And https://www.facebook.com/groups/303570524333338 for the same on Facebook

Transcript

00:00We've had a lady contact us for some some general advice. Unfortunately similar

00:07situation to the gentleman that have been contacting me. Everything does seem

00:13to stem around issues with partners and people being so fearful for their

00:23certificates and what is going to be asked for them potentially in the future.

00:27She has a partner or an ex-partner she can't trust and she's a bit worried that

00:31they'll come back and say she's a loony and shouldn't have a certificate.

00:35Unfortunately yeah moving forward and in light of the partner surveys

00:41that we've got a lot of people who were worried about what is going to happen

00:45with those in the in the future, how their partners questions are going to be

00:49viewed etc. So we do have queries regarding that. We've had a couple of

00:57incidents where there's been escalations or more severe things happening. We have

01:04a gentleman who's unfortunately had guns and certificates seized and has found

01:11himself on the receiving end of charges. We can't go too much into it at the

01:18moment because it is an ongoing and live investigation but we have a

01:24misunderstanding and a miscommunication to do with medical reports which has

01:30resulted in guns and certificates being seized due to no fault of the

01:40chap's own but as I said we will be able to talk more about that in the

01:44future as it's evolving but it is currently a live incident.

01:49Now one of the things I've noticed with you in live incidents is you're very good at

01:53picking up where the police muck it up. It's just a case of going through what's

01:58happened in the evidence. A lot of people panic in these situations. They think

02:02they can't deal with them themselves. If you take away that the element, the

02:07emotional element, take a step back and look at it then you can pick the pieces

02:13out of things that aren't right. A lot of people can't seem to see the wood from

02:18the trees because they are emotionally invested which is why having the outside

02:24help and somebody a fresh set of eyes to look at things can quickly resolve an

02:30issue. In Phil's case we were having a chat and we were going through what the

02:34police had alleged. It's come to light that when they've said that the the guns

02:43were being seized and said we did that because of X, Y and Z. X, Y and Z haven't

02:49actually happened yet. So it's a timeline, it's inconsistencies, it's pointing

02:57out what's happened and the order in which it's happened. The police may say

03:02things have happened in a certain order but when you go back and look at the

03:06evidence that's disjointed. It's happened in a different way and that

03:10slight error or inconsistency can make a huge difference. Our member with the

03:18suitability review, he came for some general advice wanting to know how we

03:25should approach the review, was there anything he needed to worry about. He's

03:31actually had the officers out to the property, everything seems to be fine and

03:39his, I believe his certificates are back and the guns are to follow. So that is a

03:48result. We've got another couple of ongoing cases at the moment. We have a

03:53gentleman who was out doing his job one evening and has gone back to his vehicle

04:01for some, to get something and has found police officers surrounding his vehicle.

04:08So there's been a report of a gentleman out in full camouflage with a gun on the

04:14road. He's been out during the course of his employment and has had a malicious

04:20allegation. The police have to work out that allegations are either ignorant or

04:26malicious, don't they? And they have to work that out and basically drop that case.

04:31And it's the speed or the lack of speed with which they do that, that's

04:35one of the problems at the moment. How do you speed that up? Member frustration

04:39is I think an all-time high at the moment with the period of time that

04:45police forces are taking to deal with things. The majority of authorities have

04:51got backlogs with absolutely everything. So some things you just have to sit

04:57tight, wait for the process to, you know, to take its time. But, you know, when you're

05:02chasing things up, always try and do it via email so that you've got a paper

05:08trail to prove when you have chased things. Make sure that everything's

05:12always done in a civil manner, that it's always amicable. The last thing you

05:18want is, because you are frustrated, getting on the phone and being irate

05:22because it doesn't do anybody any favours. Even though you are frustrated,

05:26it's just trying to keep calm about it and work the, you know, work the

05:32problem out. My Welsh lads last week, Mark and Gary, quite a lot of people in

05:37their town have lost their certificates for all kinds of different reasons, all

05:43of which are a bit, you know, they wouldn't have lost their certificates five years

05:46ago and some of which are completely spurious, I mean, on the face of it. So

05:51they're talking about going down to their police firearms licensing unit en

05:55masse and picketing it in a kind of fathers for justice type moment. Do you

06:00think that will have an effect, positive or negative? Who can say? It may have a

06:04positive effect moving forward in the future, once they realise and understand

06:09what an effect it is having on people. Unfortunately, looking back, you know,

06:13retrospectively, it's not going to help those people who've been on the receiving

06:17end of having certificates revoked. Over the past couple of years, the incidents

06:24where people are having certificates taken, it's increasing and I think the

06:29police are relying on a lot of people not wanting to put in those appeals to

06:34actually get their certificates back. As we know, you know, solicitors can be very,

06:39very expensive if you're going to fund that privately yourself. The insurance is

06:44absolutely perfect, so you've got that if anything happens in the future, but

06:50unfortunately, if you take the, you know, the insurance out and something happens

06:54from an event that was prior to you taking the insurance, then, you know, you

07:00are on your own. If you can't privately fund it, then you need to do that

07:04yourself and a lot of people haven't got the confidence to do it or the basic

07:09knowledge. They've got a fear of the law, the legal system, the language. Our

07:14insurance pays for a solicitor to represent you in court, pays for the

07:19legal process for an appeal, which usually costs about £15,000. Even if

07:24you've got a problem, you can still be a member of Fieldsports without insurance

07:29and you get you, you get Leila, which is, I mean, so far been really handy. The

07:35feedback at the moment is good. It's making me smile. It's the, for members,

07:41it's just the fact that there's somebody there to talk to. That peace of mind, if

07:47something happens over a weekend when most offices are closed, they can call me.

07:53I can get back to them extremely quickly. We can have a chat and whether it's good

07:59or bad news, depends on the situation, at least they know, and it's the not

08:04knowing that eats away at people. We've got, the solicitors have got their legal

08:10helpline as well, if that needs to be used, but I am on hand for people to email

08:17seven days a week, 24 hours a day. I've got members that are emailing me at 9, 10,

08:2311 o'clock at night. I can get back to them that evening to speak to them the

08:28next day or do it the next morning and it's alleviated a lot of pressure for

08:32people, which is, it's a big thing. It just makes, makes the members feel a lot, a lot

08:40happier and it's nice giving that to people, it really is.

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