Robert Keogh jailed for smuggling guns into UK at Dover Published duration 11 November 2019

image copyright NCA image caption Robert Keogh admitted illegally importing the firearms at an earlier hearing

A man who smuggled 60 guns hidden in his car into the UK has been jailed for nine years.

Robert Keogh, 37, from Dublin, was stopped on 2 August by Border Force officers at the Port of Dover.

Canterbury Crown Court heard it was "highly likely" people would have been shot and "perhaps some killed by criminals" had Keogh not been stopped.

The discovery was the largest such seizure at a UK port, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

After finding a converted blank-firing handgun in his car officers called the NCA, which found a further 59 similar weapons hidden around the vehicle.

image copyright NCA image caption The seizure has been called the largest haul of lethal firearms ever found at a UK port

Keogh told police he had gambling debts and had been acting under duress, the court heard.

He said he was going to be paid €10,000, and thought he might be shot if he refused to cooperate.

Judge Rupert Lowe told Keogh: "If you had not been stopped, it is highly likely that numerous people would have been threatened, and some shot, and perhaps some killed, by criminals using the illegal prohibited weapons that you were knowingly driving into this country."

image copyright NCA image caption The NCA said the discovery of a single Sig Sauer P226 led them to unearth the haul