UK: Soldiers Jailed Over Iraq Gun-Smuggling Plot

Taken from The Daily Telegraph, 11.12.06
By Richard Holt and agencies

Three soldiers have been jailed and thrown out of the Army after admitting charges relating to a plot to smuggle guns out of Iraq.

A court martial heard how non-commissioned officers (NCOs) from the Yorkshire Regiment bought cheap pistols on the Iraqi black market and smuggled them back in Army vehicles to Germany.

Once back at base the guns were then sold to other soldiers.

Today four soldiers who either bought or hid weapons at their base in Germany admitted their role in the scam last year and were sentenced at Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire.

L/Cpl Ross Phillips, 22, was jailed for five years and eight months after admitting possessing a prohibited pistol.

Pte Shane Pleasant, 26, was sentenced to five years and four months after admitting the same offence.

L/Cpl Ben Whitfield, 24, was jailed for two years and eight months after admitting an offence of trying to pervert the course of justice.

All three soldiers were dismissed from the Army.

A fourth defendant, Pte Robert Marlow, 22, escaped jail after admitting trying to pervert the course of justice but was ordered to serve six months in an Army detention centre. He was allowed to keep his job.

The NCOs alleged to have masterminded the operation will appear before a military court next year.