Shooting enthusiast finally wins right to apply for gun licence

Friday 29 January 2021

A 73-year-old convicted criminal has been given permission to apply for a firearms licence - 35 years after he was banned from owning a gun.

Martin Osment’s application to be allowed to ask the Constable of St. Saviour for a permit was granted by the Royal Court almost a year after an earlier hearing, which had highlighted a peculiar part of Jersey’s firearms law, which the Court had never had to consider before now.

The 2000 law states that a person convicted of a prison sentence of three years or more - as Mr Osment was, for dishonesty by Southwark Crown Court in 1986 - is automatically banned from holding a firearms licence.

However, it is possible to ask for the ban to be lifted, “once, during each fifth year from the date of prohibition."

This meant that Mr Osment had had seven year-long windows - each separated by five years - since his 1986 conviction to apply for the ban to end. 

Last April, the Court had considered Mr Osment’s application and although agreeing that, with his clear record since his 1986 conviction, he should be entitled to apply for a licence, the next window to apply didn’t start until 17 July. 

Six months later, and with Mr Osment also having been given permission to apply for a licence in the UK in October, the Royal Court finally withdrew his ban, which Mr Osment described as a “tremendous relief”.

Although Thursday’s hearing was short, the April judgement offered some background to the case, saying that Mr Osment was a keen pistol shooter who had lived between Jersey and the UK for many years. 

The Royal Court had then said it was very concerned about the fact that Mr Osment had lied to the Jersey Pistol Club in his provisional membership application form, signed in October 2018, where he had ticked the box “No” when asked the question, “Have you ever been convicted, in any jurisdiction for a crime other than a motoring or similar offence?"

However, the Court concluded that it was able to use its discretion and it should be able to lift the ban at the right time. 

On Thursday, Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae, who was sitting with Jurats Thomas and Averty, did just that. The Court also heard from Mr Osment that he was in the process of appealing his 1986 conviction in the English courts.