EX-TERRITORIAL ARMY TROOPER STEPHEN COX HAD SUCH A
PASSION FOR WEAPONS, HE JUST COULD NOT RESIST KEEPING GUN PARTS
AND AMMUNITION, A COURT HEARD ON WEDNESDAY.
BUT THE EX-CADET INSTRUCTING SERGEANT LOST HIS PRIVATE
COLLECTION WHEN POLICE SEARCHED HIS HOUSE AND FOUND HIS SECRET
ARMOURY, SOUTHWARK CROWN COURT WAS TOLD.
COX'S HOARD WAS DISCOVERED WHEN OFFICERS WENT TO HIS
EAST LONDON HOME WHEN HE FAILED TO RETURN HIS UNIFORM AFTER
BEING DISCHARGED FROM THE ARMY CADET FORCE ON ANOTHER MATTER.
A SEARCH OF HIS HOUSE REVEALED THE STASH OF SUB-MACHINE
AND BREN GUN MAGAZINES AND A BOX OF LIVE AMMUNITION, AS WELL AS
OTHER GUN PARTS, THE COURT WAS TOLD.
COX, 33, AND NOW UNEMPLOYED, OF PRIORESS HOUSE, BROMLEY
HIGH STREET, BOW, HAD COLLECTED THE VARIOUS PARTS WHILE WORKING
PART-TIME AS A TROOPER IN THE TERRITORIAL ARMY AND AS AN
INSTRUCTING SERGEANT WITH THE ACF.
'HE TOLD POLICE AND AN INVESTIGATING MAJOR THAT HE WAS
ISSUED WITH AMMUNITION AND HAD TAKEN THEM HOME. BUT HE FORGOT TO
RETURN THEM,' SAID MR MARK ELLISON, PROSECUTING.
IT WAS AGREED THAT COX HAD NOT STOLEN THE ITEMS OR USED
THEM FOR 'SINISTER' PURPOSES. 'HE IS JUST A BIT OF A MAGPIE,'
SAID MR ELLISON.
SOME OF THE MAGAZINES HAD BEEN ACQUIRED WHEN COX WAS IN
THE TA, SAID MR DAVID JEREMY, DEFENDING.
'HE WAS GIVEN THEM TO KEEP FOR THE CADETS,' ADDED
COUNSEL.
COX, WHO WAS SAID TO HAVE HAD A PASSION FOR THE ARMED
FORCES ALL OF HIS LIFE, PLEADED GUILTY TO POSSESSION OF
MAGAZINES AND AMMUNITION WITHOUT A FIREARMS CERTIFICATE, ON
OCTOBER 17 LAST YEAR.
A CHARGE OF THEFT WAS NOT PROCEEDED WITH.
HE WAS FINED A TOTAL OF � 200 AND ORDERED TO PAY � 75 TOWARDS
PROSECUTION COSTS.
Id never do anything like that at the nucluer missile factory that i work at on night shift with my big bin that i have to provide myself because they're so tight with cleaning materials and all that.
