A Bradford man today failed in his bid to appeal his sentence for firearms offences in one of the first cases to be broadcast from the Court of Appeal.
Joseph Stott, 24, of Halton Place, Great Horton, was jailed for seven-and-a-half years at Bradford Crown Court in January, after pleading guilty to his role in a plot to transport a sawn-off shotgun from Bradford to Birmingham to use in a potentially lethal shooting.
He had appealed against the length of his sentence for conspiracy to possess a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life claiming it was not justified.
But his appeal was dismissed by Mr Justice Globe and Judge Anthony Morris QC at the Court of Appeal today.
The hearing was one of the first to be televised from the court after a near 90-year ban on allowing cameras in court was lifted.
After years of campaigning by broadcasters, cameras have been placed in five courtrooms at the Royal Courts of Justice, although proceedings will only be filmed from one courtroom on any given day.
Lawyers' arguments and judges' summing up, decision and – in criminal cases – sentencing remarks can be filmed, however, victims, witnesses and defendants will not.
It is the first time cameras have been allowed in English courts, other than the Supreme Court since they were prohibited by the Criminal Justice Act 1925.
Stott was jailed with accomplices Iflaq Khan, 35, and Nadeem Hussain, 32, for the plot to supply a sawn-off shotgun and three live cartridges to an unknown person in Birmingham to shoot someone at Bradford Crown Court in January.
The hearing was told the conspiracy on July 27 last year was foiled by a police operation involving surveillance, phone evidence and house searches.
Khan, of Baxendall Street, West Bowling, and Nadeem Hussain, of Merton Road, Little Horton, also received seven-and-a-half year sentences for the same charge as Stott.
Jailing all three, Judge David Hatton QC said the gun was “a weapon that clearly presented a great source of danger”.
A fourth man, Umar Hussain, 28, of Sandhurst Avenue, Birmingham - the courier ferrying the weapon to the West Midlands from Bradford - was locked up for three and a half years after admitting conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.
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