00:00We've had a lady contact us for some some general advice. Unfortunately similar
00:07situation to the gentleman that have been contacting me. Everything does seem
00:13to stem around issues with partners and people being so fearful for their
00:23certificates and what is going to be asked for them potentially in the future.
00:27She has a partner or an ex-partner she can't trust and she's a bit worried that
00:31they'll come back and say she's a loony and shouldn't have a certificate.
00:35Unfortunately yeah moving forward and in light of the partner surveys
00:41that we've got a lot of people who were worried about what is going to happen
00:45with those in the in the future, how their partners questions are going to be
00:49viewed etc. So we do have queries regarding that. We've had a couple of
00:57incidents where there's been escalations or more severe things happening. We have
01:04a gentleman who's unfortunately had guns and certificates seized and has found
01:11himself on the receiving end of charges. We can't go too much into it at the
01:18moment because it is an ongoing and live investigation but we have a
01:24misunderstanding and a miscommunication to do with medical reports which has
01:30resulted in guns and certificates being seized due to no fault of the
01:40chap's own but as I said we will be able to talk more about that in the
01:44future as it's evolving but it is currently a live incident.
01:49Now one of the things I've noticed with you in live incidents is you're very good at
01:53picking up where the police muck it up. It's just a case of going through what's
01:58happened in the evidence. A lot of people panic in these situations. They think
02:02they can't deal with them themselves. If you take away that the element, the
02:07emotional element, take a step back and look at it then you can pick the pieces
02:13out of things that aren't right. A lot of people can't seem to see the wood from
02:18the trees because they are emotionally invested which is why having the outside
02:24help and somebody a fresh set of eyes to look at things can quickly resolve an
02:30issue. In Phil's case we were having a chat and we were going through what the
02:34police had alleged. It's come to light that when they've said that the the guns
02:43were being seized and said we did that because of X, Y and Z. X, Y and Z haven't
02:49actually happened yet. So it's a timeline, it's inconsistencies, it's pointing
02:57out what's happened and the order in which it's happened. The police may say
03:02things have happened in a certain order but when you go back and look at the
03:06evidence that's disjointed. It's happened in a different way and that
03:10slight error or inconsistency can make a huge difference. Our member with the
03:18suitability review, he came for some general advice wanting to know how we
03:25should approach the review, was there anything he needed to worry about. He's
03:31actually had the officers out to the property, everything seems to be fine and
03:39his, I believe his certificates are back and the guns are to follow. So that is a
03:48result. We've got another couple of ongoing cases at the moment. We have a
03:53gentleman who was out doing his job one evening and has gone back to his vehicle
04:01for some, to get something and has found police officers surrounding his vehicle.
04:08So there's been a report of a gentleman out in full camouflage with a gun on the
04:14road. He's been out during the course of his employment and has had a malicious
04:20allegation. The police have to work out that allegations are either ignorant or
04:26malicious, don't they? And they have to work that out and basically drop that case.
04:31And it's the speed or the lack of speed with which they do that, that's
04:35one of the problems at the moment. How do you speed that up? Member frustration
04:39is I think an all-time high at the moment with the period of time that
04:45police forces are taking to deal with things. The majority of authorities have
04:51got backlogs with absolutely everything. So some things you just have to sit
04:57tight, wait for the process to, you know, to take its time. But, you know, when you're
05:02chasing things up, always try and do it via email so that you've got a paper
05:08trail to prove when you have chased things. Make sure that everything's
05:12always done in a civil manner, that it's always amicable. The last thing you
05:18want is, because you are frustrated, getting on the phone and being irate
05:22because it doesn't do anybody any favours. Even though you are frustrated,
05:26it's just trying to keep calm about it and work the, you know, work the
05:32problem out. My Welsh lads last week, Mark and Gary, quite a lot of people in
05:37their town have lost their certificates for all kinds of different reasons, all
05:43of which are a bit, you know, they wouldn't have lost their certificates five years
05:46ago and some of which are completely spurious, I mean, on the face of it. So
05:51they're talking about going down to their police firearms licensing unit en
05:55masse and picketing it in a kind of fathers for justice type moment. Do you
06:00think that will have an effect, positive or negative? Who can say? It may have a
06:04positive effect moving forward in the future, once they realise and understand
06:09what an effect it is having on people. Unfortunately, looking back, you know,
06:13retrospectively, it's not going to help those people who've been on the receiving
06:17end of having certificates revoked. Over the past couple of years, the incidents
06:24where people are having certificates taken, it's increasing and I think the
06:29police are relying on a lot of people not wanting to put in those appeals to
06:34actually get their certificates back. As we know, you know, solicitors can be very,
06:39very expensive if you're going to fund that privately yourself. The insurance is
06:44absolutely perfect, so you've got that if anything happens in the future, but
06:50unfortunately, if you take the, you know, the insurance out and something happens
06:54from an event that was prior to you taking the insurance, then, you know, you
07:00are on your own. If you can't privately fund it, then you need to do that
07:04yourself and a lot of people haven't got the confidence to do it or the basic
07:09knowledge. They've got a fear of the law, the legal system, the language. Our
07:14insurance pays for a solicitor to represent you in court, pays for the
07:19legal process for an appeal, which usually costs about £15,000. Even if
07:24you've got a problem, you can still be a member of Fieldsports without insurance
07:29and you get you, you get Leila, which is, I mean, so far been really handy. The
07:35feedback at the moment is good. It's making me smile. It's the, for members,
07:41it's just the fact that there's somebody there to talk to. That peace of mind, if
07:47something happens over a weekend when most offices are closed, they can call me.
07:53I can get back to them extremely quickly. We can have a chat and whether it's good
07:59or bad news, depends on the situation, at least they know, and it's the not
08:04knowing that eats away at people. We've got, the solicitors have got their legal
08:10helpline as well, if that needs to be used, but I am on hand for people to email
08:17seven days a week, 24 hours a day. I've got members that are emailing me at 9, 10,
08:2311 o'clock at night. I can get back to them that evening to speak to them the
08:28next day or do it the next morning and it's alleviated a lot of pressure for
08:32people, which is, it's a big thing. It just makes, makes the members feel a lot, a lot
08:40happier and it's nice giving that to people, it really is.
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