Couple who took guns on ferry banned from owning them

Saturday 10 June 2023

A couple who tried to take guns and bullets on a ferry from Jersey to France – and had others stored unsafely in their home – have been spared prison but banned from owning firearms.

Carlos Alberto Pinhoa Aires (51) and his partner Edite Neves De Oliveira (52) were each given suspended prison sentences in the Royal Court yesterday for carrying guns with authorisation and not securing them according to the law.

They also had their gun licences revoked.

Advocate Luke Sette, prosecuting, said the couple had planned to travel through France to Portugal on 25 September last year for a shooting holiday.

They had certificates permitting them to own guns, but did not have official permission to take them off the island.

A search of their car at Elizabeth Terminal uncovered a Smith & Wesson handgun, a semi-automatic pistol and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Aires also had a loaded Smith & Wesson in a satchel by the front seat of his car, which he said he wanted to keep close for protection, having been robbed in France once before.

Both Aires and De Oliveir said they were not aware that official permission was needed to take guns out of Jersey.

When police searched the couple’s home in St Peter they found more pistols and rifles in the attic, wrapped in beach towels or covered in loft insulation, and more than 3,100 rounds of ammunition stored in drawers and boxes in their bedroom.

Laws for possessing guns and ammunition state that they must always be stored securely in a locked cupboard, with the key hidden from view.

The couple claimed they had been in a rush to go on holiday and had not had time to store all the weaponry properly, but Advocate Sette said that "their slapdash behaviour gave rise to a situation where members of the public were put at risk of harm".

Aires and De Oliveira admitted the charges of attempting to evade a prohibition on the export of goods, failure to comply with the requirements of a firearm certificate, carrying a firearm in a public place and unlawful possession of a firearm.

Advocate Sette said: "The custody threshold is passed." However, he accepted that the pair had pleaded guilty early and had no previous convictions, so recommended 240 hours of community service for each.

Advocate James Bell, defending Aires, and Advocate Paul Nicholls, defending De Oliveira, both suggested suspended sentences.

Advocate Bell said: "Mr Aires is registered to possess a firearm and is aware of the proper conditions, but he accepts he did not comply with the conditions and very much regrets this."

Advocate Nicholls added: "They are good people. They made a series of very poor decisions. They fell considerably short of the standards required of them."

The Jurats agreed to the defence advocates’ suggestion and imposed sentences of 18 months each, suspended for two years.

Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae told them: "You were both holders of firearms certificates and you flagrantly disregarded your obligations. You left weapons and ammunition in your home in a wholly insecure manner.’

He added: "The excuse that you were in a rush to get on holiday we regard as wholly unsatisfactory.

"Neither of you are fit and proper persons to be entrusted with firearms."

They were also ordered to pay costs of £750 each.

The Jurats presiding were Robert Christensen and Karen Le Cornu.