A 46-year-old man who stashed a homemade gun in the undergrowth of Hampstead Heath has been jailed for five years.
Dominic Van Allen’s DNA was found on the improvised firearm which had been constructed out of a small pipe and featured an inbuilt silencer.
Police officers discovered the weapon after going to investigate Van Allen’s camp hidden within bushes and initially thought it was a pipe bomb. They also retrieved a bullet from the hide and a smaller piece of pipe to enable the weapon to fire different types of ammunition.
Forensic tests showed the device was a viable gun, which could have been used with the addition of gunpowder.
Van Allen was convicted of possessing a disguised prohibited firearm and a component part of a prohibited firearm, and jailed at Blackfriars crown court on Friday. The weapon was found in November and he was arrested after being traced by police in February.
