Firearms man is jailed for 4 years

5:50pm Wednesday 3rd December 2008

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A THIRD man has been jailed following raids in Bury in which police seized a shotgun and nearly 1,000 rounds of ammunition.

Wayne Robert Catterall, of Swallow Drive, Bury, was sentenced to a total of four years in prison for a number of firearms offences when he appeared before Manchester Crown Court on Monday.

At an earlier hearing, he pleaded guilty to selling or transferring ammunition unlawfully, possessing ammunition without a certificate and possession of a firearm.

The 24-year-old was one of three men arrested in a major operation by officers from Greater Manchester Police’s Xcalibre Organised Crime Unit.

On January 25 this year, officers carried out a search at Catterall’s home where a double-barrelled sawn-off shotgun and eight loose cartridges, were recovered. Catterall was arrested a few days later.

Following further inquiries two other men were later arrested when police executed a warrant at Michel Maurice Metcalf’s home address in Calf Hey Close, Radcliffe, and an armed strike was conducted by officers on a Fiat Punto, driven by Errol Lloyd Tudor, on Ainsworth Road, Bury. Almost 1,000 rounds of ammunition were recovered in the raids.

In May, Metcalf, aged 49 — the twin brother of hero firefighter Paul, who drowned nine years ago when he tried to save a 16-year-old boy from a lodge in Holcombe — was jailed for two years after he pleaded guilty to possessing and supplying ammunition.

Tudor was found guilty in his absence of possessing ammunition following a trial at Manchester Crown Court.

The 44-year-old from Rochdale, who is currently on the run, was also sentenced on Monday to three years in prison.

Detective Sergeant Nicholas Edge said: “Catterall armed himself with a deadly weapon and thankfully that has now been seized and he is off the streets.”