Two sentenced after firearms stolen in burglary

Two men have been sentenced after a number of firearms were stolen from a Cossington burglary.

At Leicester Crown Court, 40 year old, Matthew Moore of Wanlip Lane, Birstall was sentenced to nine years and six months in prison and 53 year old, Brian Kemp of Marwood Road, Leicester was sentenced to two years and five months in prison after pleading guilty in February.

Moore pleaded guilty to burglary dwelling, handling stolen goods and six counts of possession of a firearm. Kemp pleaded guilty to burglary dwelling.

Between 6th and 9th July last year, Kemp and Moore broke into a property in Humble Lane, Cossington while the owners were away on holiday.

A friend, who had been checking the property, found a window had been smashed and after a search had been made five shotguns, two rifles and quantity of ammunition had been stolen.

Following a forensic examination carried out at the scene by crime scene investigators, a rubber glove was recovered which had a fingerprint that belonged to Kemp.

In the weeks after, a search of a field in Birstall by officers found two of the shotguns with ammunition stolen during the burglary.

Detective Constable Clare Moore, the investigating officer, said: “Fortunately for us, but not so for Kemp, the glove he left at the scene gave us an excellent starting point by placing him at the scene and featured heavily in building our case against him and linking Moore to the crime.

“As part of the significant detective work which followed we were able to arrest and charge Kemp and Moore and successfully retrieve three of the stolen guns removing them from the hands of criminals and of the streets to be used in potential offending.

“Leicestershire Police takes all firearms offences extremely seriously and will work tirelessly to investigate, gather evidence and put this before the courts as we have done on this occasion.”