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Appearing at Croydon Crown Court on Thursday, 11 February, Bekki Dean, 27  Woburn Road, Carshalton, and Bradley Clancy, 39 of no fixed address, were sentenced to five and 12 years imprisonment, respectively.

They were convicted on Friday, 11 September 2020 following a trial at Croydon Crown Court.

Dean was found guilty of conspiracy to transfer a firearm, and possession of a firearm and ammunition.

Clancy was found guilty of possession of ammunition and a firearm with intent to endanger life. He was also found guilty of conspiracy to transfer a firearm.

Both defendants were arrested following a proactive operation tackling gun crime in London.

Shortly before 9pm on 14 August 2019, specialist firearms officers, and officers from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command stopped a black Volkswagen Polo on Peterborough Road in Carshalton.

The vehicle was being driven by Dean, who was removed from the car in order for the officers to conduct a search.

At the time that she was stopped, Dean was on the phone to someone listed in her contacts as ‘Bradley’. She was asked if there was anything in the car she should tell the officers about before they carried out the search, to which she replied that there was a gun in a Louis Vuitton (LV) bag.

The brown LV bag was on the front passenger seat and within that was a smaller black bag that held a pistol and a magazine containing multiple rounds of ammunition.

The firearm and ammunition were later subjected to forensic analysis by a firearms expert and found to be a Glock model 19, 9mm Parabellum calibre self-loading pistol with a cartridge magazine that was loaded with a number of cartridges.

Dean was arrested for possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life. She made no comment when she was cautioned, and was taken to a south London police station.

During the interview, she gave a prepared statement claiming that she was under duress to transport the gun by a man who she was completely intimidated by and truly in fear of.

She made no reply to all other questions and did not provide any details of who this person was. She was asked who Bradley was and whether he had anything to do with this firearm at the time, but did not provide any details.

She was charged with the offence for which she had been arrested.

Once Dean was charged and remanded, Specialist Crime officers were investigating who she was meeting to possibly deliver the firearm to and sent the firearm away for forensic testing.

Dean’s Her phone was subject to interrogation and within the images she had saved were images of a driving licence attributed to Bradley Clancy.

Enquiries showed that Clancy was in contact with Dean on the night of her arrest.

Further analysis revealed that Dean and Clancy had texted or called each other five times between 5.15pm and 8.49pm; including when she was on the phone to him at the time of her arrest. It also revealed that Clancy’s phone was located a short distance from where officers arrested Dean, potentially within viewing distance of the police stop.

Officers located and arrested Clancy on 17 October 2019 in connection with the investigation.

They took a swab of DNA from him before he was released under investigation.

This swab of DNA evidence was compared with DNA found on the muzzle of the Glock gun. The two matched, proving Clancy had been in previous contact with the gun that Dean was transporting.

Clancy was again arrested and charged with conspiring to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life / enable another to do so.

Detective Constable Andy Snazell, from the Met’s Specialist Crime South team who led the investigation, said: “The stop on this vehicle led to the safe removal of a dangerous firearm from the streets of London and the subsequent investigation has resulted in these convictions.

“Today’s sentence results show how seriously the police and Courts take gun crime offences and as a result of their actions, Dean and Clancy will be spending a significant number of years behind bars.”

 

If you are worried that a family member or friend might be involved in criminality or vulnerable to people who may be violent, visit Knife Free or the NSPCC website for help and advice.