Truckers at a roadside cafe on the M25 heard bullets “whizzing over their heads” as novice marksmen used an unsafe shooting range, a court heard.
Members of the public on the motorway and in a nearby hotel and housing estate were allegedly at risk of being hit by stray bullets from the Full Metal Jacket club in Waltham Abbey.
Wood Green crown court heard “inexperienced” club users were firing at a bank that was not high enough, with stony patches that could cause the bullets to ricochet.
Nick Doherty, prosecuting, told jurors: “Shooters are aiming towards the road and possibly towards the truck stop.
“You see that bullets could potentially go on to the motorway, a cafe, a hotel and even a housing estate below.
“Not only was the surface of this bank not correct — it’s got too many hard objects and bits of stone and should actually be a soft sandbank — to make it a safe range, but more importantly it wasn’t high enough.”
He said “novice” shooters were allowed to use the club without proper supervision, and the .22 rifles in use had the capacity to fire over 450 metres, while the motorway was less than half that distance away.
“The likelihood is that those bullets will ricochet over the bank and out to where there are people, members of the public,” he said. “There is plenty of evidence of the people shooting on this range being very inexperienced.”
Mr Doherty added that the owner of the nearby truck stop had “received complaints from his customers of hearing ‘bullets whizzing over their heads’”.
He said Daniel Hammond, 35, of Hemel Hempstead, obtained 12 rifles and 47,000 rounds of ammunition, but exemptions from tight firearms controls did not apply in this case.
Hammond and Kevin Foster, 35, of Camden, deny firearms offences. The trial continues.
