The Crown recently offered no evidence in an antique firearms case at Snaresbrook Crown Court following representations made by Tony Meisels of this firm.

Our client, a retired man in his sixties with no previous convictions, had been charged with two counts of possessing a firearm without a certificate, both shotguns being between 87 and 107 years old. He had inherited the weapons from his late father over twenty years ago and at one point they had even been on a manifest of items held in the storage facilities of a well-known removals company.

This case was only dropped by the Crown three weeks before trial after persistent representations by Mr Meisels who relied on the statutory defence afforded by Section 58(2) of the Firearms Act 1968 which provides an exemption if the weapon is an antique and is possessed as a curiosity or ornament.