UCAP airsoft owner admits to stealing MOD equipment

[colinjallen]

Re: UCAP airsoft owner admits to stealing MOD equipment

Having heard him make racially derogatory comments about players when he thought that they could either not understand him or hear him, I tend to agree with the negative comments about him.

[PureSilver]

Re: UCAP airsoft owner admits to stealing MOD equipment

not one individual will beneifit from any of these men going to prison, and if any of them have families it will be a disaster for many innocent people and of course by sending any of them to prison will only hamper that persons chances to pay back what is appropriate. im guessing that it will be quite long time before any of these guys handle stolen goods again

Wrong. If this dissuades even one or two others from trying something similar we might be able to make a more notable dent in the considerable thievery the MoD - and by extension all British taxpayers - are the victim of every year. In a very direct way we all benefit from these idiots getting banged up, particularly since even you acknowledge this sentence means the three in question are very unlikely to do this again. Sure, it costs us money to put Andy away for a year. However, that is money we have to spend if we want to discourage this kind of theft, and since that theft costs us in excess of £1m a year, it's not excessive to spend £50k to discourage it.

Insinuating that airsofters as a whole are somehow collectively responsible for supporting or encouraging this kind of theft is insulting and facile. Another thing that's pants-on-head retarded is saying that nicking £50k of publicly-owned restricted military equipment is comparable to pocketing a notepad from work. If you can't see the difference Fizzy so neatly laid out, that's on you, not us.

all im trying to do is put this into perspective, these three hurt no one and no one was ever at risk from their actions [...] all they stole was high end gear from a huge organisation, no one got hurt, no individual lost their personal property.

"All they stole was £50k of taxpayer's money in the form of equipment that could be dangerous in the wrong hands." There is clear and present risk of misuse or reverse-engineering in the theft and illegal export of military NVG, which is one of the reasons why they are controlled by ITAR in the first place. We don't know yet if anyone has been hurt physically or will be in the future, but I flat-out guarantee that the wives and kids that get to visit their spouses and fathers in prison for a year are feeling pretty hurt right about now.

Now I don't know the ins and outs of the case well enough to say for certain, but if I was a gambling man I would suggest he had a very wealthy collector over there or he was taking them to somebody who could reproduce them for less cost.

If I had all my eggs in one basket, I'd be looking to get them reverse engineered and sell the clones to the Milsimmer types.

He had a HK-based collector who'd done £30k of business with him in the past; that's who they will have been for. Reverse-engineering modern image intensifier tubes is exceptionally difficult and not the sort of thing airsoft companies can do.

[Roundel91]

Re: UCAP airsoft owner admits to stealing MOD equipment

Unlucky chaps. You played the game and lost. Nil sympathy whatsoever for c**** like this.
The "they didnt hurt anyone, it was a victimless crime so why should he do actual time?" Line is bollocks.
He was selling kit that is very attractive to criminal and terrorist organisations, who would most likely use the kit sold on to hurt someone else!

[Paul55]

Re: UCAP airsoft owner admits to stealing MOD equipment

He had a HK-based collector who'd done £30k of business with him in the past; that's who they will have been for. Reverse-engineering modern image intensifier tubes is exceptionally difficult and not the sort of thing airsoft companies can do.

This fact on it's own is enough to justify his sentence. He's got off lightly IMO. Theft of any kind is insidious, thieving from the UK's Armed Forces is far, far worse. There has to be sympathy for his wife & children as he obviously had none of his own.

[Roundel91]

Re: UCAP airsoft owner admits to stealing MOD equipment

This fact on it's own is enough to justify his sentence. He's got off lightly IMO. Theft of any kind is insidious, thieving from the UK's Armed Forces is far, far worse. There has to be sympathy for his wife & children as he obviously had none of his own.

Not to mention certain image intensifier tubes in use in some NVG's are restricted to UK mil use only, Oh and also hideously expensive. A set of nitebird aircrew gogs are somewhere around £30k for a complete assembly and the IITs are by far the dearest parts

[seansamurai1]

Re: UCAP airsoft owner admits to stealing MOD equipment

Lets also look at the side thats not been looked at. People are saying Andy got dumped on with his sentence, lets break it down. Hes got 1 year in the clink and 1 year on licence. That time he will still overall see the benefits of his legitimate hardwork (UCAP) and when he comes out will no doubt take the reigns again.

Now the flip side is the two Army guys who you think got off lightly.
They've lost careers, lost pensions, if they were in married patches they've lost those, they've lost respect which is a big thing between forces peeps, they've obtained criminal records and without the support of a business like Andy has it's gonna F them up bigstyle.
Pvt Bloggs former NV handling specialist is now an expert burger flipper in McBummbles because yeah, McDonalds wont even have them.

[StargateP90]

Re: UCAP airsoft owner admits to stealing MOD equipment

Still cant believe folk are still defending him. Ive met him a fair few times, played Sandpit alot. Everytime he came across as a bellend, as though he thought he was better that everyone else because he ran UCAP.

On my phone, my spelling will suck

[Siggi]

Re: UCAP airsoft owner admits to stealing MOD equipment

Morality is relative. What turns my stomach is how car-thieves and burglars (residential) are more likely to get a suspended sentence than bang-up, while anything that takes money from govt coffers is treated with the utmost severity. So on the one hand you have an actual citizen who has lost their pride and joy (their car) or had their home violated, they get to see the scum who did it walk free with their "toothless grin". The guy who liberated stuff from a faceless entity (the govt) that his taxes helped pay for, or dodged customs duties, he goes down more often or not. And all the blather and waffle about it being sensitive kit...spare us the operator leet-talk techno-babble. It was a bunch of fraudulently over-priced gack (remember the $200 military-issue screwdrivers?). Terrorists can purchase perfectly viable NV kit online.

Petty stores-thieves making a bit of bunce money, boo hoo. Dedicate the same investigatory resources to home-burglaries and suchlike and produce results real citizens actually give a toss about.

[JCheeseright]

Re: UCAP airsoft owner admits to stealing MOD equipment

Can terrorists get their hands easily on NICO 6-bang distraction grenades and surefire suppressors though? 'Perfectly viable' night vision is a step away from a set of PVS21's (retail $20,000 per eyepiece! https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...ile_night.html).

I've personally had to make do with inferior kit while deployed because stores didn't have enough of the correct equipment to do the job I needed to do the job. Stealing things from military stores puts people's lives at risk in a very direct way, it's the military equivalent of robbing all the bandages from an ambulance.

[tackle]

Re: UCAP airsoft owner admits to stealing MOD equipment

Siggi beat me to it, but yes, if you attack the "system", you are guaranteed a custodial, even if your crime is purely financially motivated & harms no one in the short term.
But if you target joe bloggs, the man on the street, there's every chance you'll walk away with a slap on the wrist, ffs under the tariff system you can be convicted of murder, given a "life sentence" (lol) & only serve 4 years.....wtf is that about, the scales of justice are severely out of wack.

[Siggi]

Re: UCAP airsoft owner admits to stealing MOD equipment

Terrorists don't need distraction grenades, they prefer the ones that maim and kill.

A "step away" from PVS21s, irrelevant. Off the civvy shelf stuff is adequate (please try not to buy into the BS blurb of the arms manufacturers. Those scum have been leeching off the public tax-tit for decades).

Everyone in the military has had to make do with 'inferior kit', mainly because superior stuff is a) a myth or b) not even procured. I don't think lack of UK body-armour was due to tea-leaves in the stores.

"Stealing things from military stores puts people's lives at risk in a very direct way." Once in a million instances. Possibly. Not even in the same country as nicking all the bandages from an ambulance though.

Knee-jerk hysteria though, gotta love the mindless mob.

[Boo-Sabum Ben]

Re: UCAP airsoft owner admits to stealing MOD equipment

So you condone what he's done then?

Either you do or you don't.

[Siggi]

Re: UCAP airsoft owner admits to stealing MOD equipment

I neither condone nor condemn it, at that level. I couldn't care less. You worry about petty thievery, costing the tax-payer peanuts, while the real criminals far higher up the ladder line their pockets to the tune of millions and directly cause countless deaths. Any sign of those scumbags even being questioned, never mind prosecuted, convicted and banged up?

Perspective, find some.

Oh, and just to mention, when I was in if it wasn't nailed down it was gone. Not organized or to order but it went. Officers at it too. It's a culture and it matters only when somebody gets caught.

[colinjallen]

Re: UCAP airsoft owner admits to stealing MOD equipment

Sorry Sigrun, but that is bullshit. Essentially, you are arguing that relatively low level crime should be ignored, presumably unless it affects you directly, because what you see as higher level crime is not dealt with in the way that you would like.

I get that you are "anti-establishment"; that comes through loud and clear on your Facebook page. However, your argument makes no sense whatever.

[SRB]

Re: UCAP airsoft owner admits to stealing MOD equipment

I agree that the disparity between how people who wrong 'the establishment' and the man in the street sucks.

However there are so many individuals that are in a position to steal or abuse government property, there has to be a deterent to those that are that way minded and low in moral fibre. It sends a message and may dissuade a few from doing likewise. Government property or not theft is theft, there is no excuse for it.

I have no doubt Andy must have known this was stolen property and deserves all that comes with it.

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