Breaches: FLA reveals more than 200 criminals received gun licences

 

The Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA) is reporting that more than 200 criminals received gun licences from 2014 to 2017, despite warnings from the police that the individuals should not be issued permits.

 

Shane Dalling, Chief Executive Officer of the FLA, made the revelation at a media briefing on Tuesday. 

 

Mr. Dalling disclosed that the individuals were from St. James, Manchester, Clarendon, Trelawny and Westmoreland.

 

He said some of the applicants who received gun licences were convicted for serious offences such as murder, illegal possession of firearm, robbery with aggravation, rape, and drug trafficking.  

 

What was alarming, Mr. Dalling said, was that their background information was already on file before the board granted the approvals.  

 

"I'll go further to state to you that there are cases so blatant that the board denied initially that individual the firearm licence on the basis that they said the persons were not fit and proper, and mere weeks later, the same members of the board who denied the person picked up the file and granted the person the licence," he revealed.

 

Mr. Dalling said in one instance, a man who was sentenced for illegal possession of a firearm in Manchester, made an application which was granted by the FLA board in 2014.

 

"He was found in a car with an illegal firearm and was arrested by the police and went to court and pled guilty and was sentenced," the FLA CEO noted. 

 

The man later applied for a firearm licence and was denied in August 2014 on the basis that he lied about having a conviction. Yet, just three months later, he was granted a licence by the same board, despite neither filing a new application nor making an appeal.  

 

Additionally, Mr. Dalling said a Corporate Area don who was extradited from the United States was one of two individuals issued with four gun licences by the then FLA board.

 

"What was curious is that the board was reversing decisions of the previous board – meaning one board would deny the licence on the basis that the person is not fit and proper, and although the new board had no new application before it or no new information, they were picking up the files out of the registry and approving the persons on a ‘willy nilly’ basis, and that is how several criminal elements got licences." 

 

Mr. Dalling said the practice became widespread among FLA staff. 

 

He alleged that the Ministry of National Security became aware of the corruption at the FLA in 2015 and, in a correspondence from the permanent secretary to the board, warned the FLA staff to cease the practice.

 

However, he said "nothing was done to prevent it from continuing".