Two Men Jailed for Selling ‘Military-Grade’ Weapons

Two men from Warrington have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms after importing and selling military-grade firearms used in shootings across Liverpool and other parts of the UK.

Philip Waugh, 39, and his accomplice Robert Brazendale had previously admitted firearms offences and conspiring to cause grievous bodily harm by attempting to arrange an acid attack on a rival.

Waugh was jailed for 26 years and eight months, while Brazendale, already serving a 10-year term for firearms offences in 2022, received an additional 11 years and four months. The sentences were handed down at Liverpool Crown Court by Judge Andrew Menary KC.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) launched a four-year investigation into the pair’s activities, tracing the sale of weapons via the encrypted communications platform EncroChat. Waugh allegedly smuggled firearms into the UK, which Brazendale then sold to criminal gangs.

Recovered messages revealed buyers’ enthusiasm for the weapons. One read: “Mate I just got a sick bit of steel,” while another said: “Mate next level something out of a film.”

The NCA said the weapons supplied included AK47 rifles, a Skorpion machine gun, and an Uzi, with prices advertised at £10,000 for an AK47 and £9,000 for an Uzi.

Ben Rutter of the NCA described Waugh as supplying “an array of terrifying automatic and semi-automatic weaponry to offenders planning horrific crimes,” adding that he “didn’t care who might be killed, only the money.”

Adam Clarke of the Crown Prosecution Service said the pair led “a sophisticated criminal enterprise” and highlighted the serious risk the weapons posed to communities across the UK.

Judge Menary described firearms trafficking as “the gravest risk to public safety” and noted Liverpool’s violent crime rate continues to exceed the national average, saying gun crime “instils fear, destabilises communities and causes tragic loss of life.”

Neither Waugh nor Brazendale reacted in court as their sentences were read.