Judge slams Wandsworth prison security over gun import plot

Alexander Mullings, Emily Ciantar and Spencer Inglis had denied the charges

A judge has condemned as "a scandal" the prison security that allowed an inmate to import at least eight Skorpion submachine guns into Britain.

Alexander Mullings, 23, was jailed for life for conspiring to possess firearms with intent to endanger life.

His girlfriend Emily Ciantar, 20, was found guilty of the same charge and was jailed for 12 years and four months.

Mullings smuggled the guns into the UK from his cell in Wandsworth Prison, Luton Crown Court heard.

Spencer Inglis, 24, of Mitcham, south London, was jailed for seven-and-a-half years for possessing a prohibited weapon.

Judge David Farrell QC called for an inquiry into security arrangements at HMP Wandsworth.

Five of the guns, which are similar to a weapon reportedly used by one of the terrorists behind the Paris attacks, are unaccounted for and could be in the hands of criminals, the court heard.

Skorpion submachine guns were seized by police

Ringleader Alexander Mullings, originally from Islington, north London, secretly smuggled the weapons into the country from Germany using delivery firm Parcelforce.

Ciantar, from Holloway, north London, acted as a courier while co-defendant Spencer Inglis took delivery of one of the guns.

The first gun was delivered to the Mitcham address of Inglis, 24, on 12 April.

All three were found guilty at the Old Bailey in January.

Mullings, 23, who is originally from Islington, was serving a sentence for a series of robberies, at the time he used a mobile phone to arrange the importation.

The judge told him: "It is a scandal that the security at Wandsworth was so wholly inadequate that you were able to do so."

Sentencing them, the judge said: "Each of you played a part in what was a well organised and precisely executed criminal enterprise to import machine pistols and the ammunition for them."