Former SAS hero jailed for supplying gun

A "tough" former SAS hero, trapped by an undercover police officer into illegally supplying a machine-gun and dum-dum bullets, was yesterday jailed for three years.

Robert Scott, 49, who distinguished himself in battle zones around the world, hoped the deal would result in pounds 100,000 worth of legitimate business.

But Judge Derek Inman told Scott that with his military background he must have been aware of the danger in which he was putting society.

"It is a tragedy for someone like you to be involved in such a trade," he told Scott at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court.

A second defendant, David Spencer, 38, also a former soldier, who supplied a sub-machine pistol, received an 18-month sentence. A third man, ex- MI6 officer Christopher Hale, 57, who provided a revolver and bullets at Scott's request, was awaiting sentence.

The judge told Scott that although his defence counsel had insisted he had been "badgered, pestered and pushed" into becoming involved in the shadowy world of arms supplies by an undercover policeman, the fact remained he could have easily pulled out of the negotiations at any time. But you just did not do so ... your service record describes you properly and with justification as tough and determined, cool and competent.

"You arranged for the supply of the sub-machine-gun and you prepared and supplied the dum-dum bullets.

"As far as you were concerned it was to be used by Billy - the undercover officer - and his gang in some form of armed attack," the judge said. "Billy" had told Scott he needed a "shooter" to frighten members of a rival gang.

The judge told Scott, of Chobham, Surrey, who admitted one count of selling or transferring a prohibited weapon and a second charge of transferring ammunition to another, that the offences were so serious there was no alternative to imprisonment.