Jason Ablewhite had already resigned as police and crime commissioner in November 2019 after he allegedly sent an explicit photo to a woman on Facebook.
A former police and crime commissioner for Cambridgeshire will not face prosecution despite officers discovering live ammunition at his home for which he did not have a licence.
Jason Ablewhite had already resigned as police and crime commissioner in November 2019 after he allegedly sent an explicit photo to a woman on Facebook.
That incident led to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) launching an investigation that led to the discovery of the live ammunition by police officers in November 2019.
A report from the IOPC stated that four cartridges of ammunition were seized from Ablewhite’s home. Ablewhite has had a shotgun certificate since December 2016, but the four bulleted cartridges required a separate firearms certificate.
The report states: “It was suspected that the possession of the ammunition was not in accordance with the terms of his shotgun certificate.
“The ammunition was forensically examined.
“The four bulleted cartridges were identified and amount to ammunition under Section 57(2) of the Firearms Act 1968.
“As such a firearm certificate is required for such ammunition to be lawfully possessed.”
According to the IOPC report, Ablewhite said he was not aware that there was live ammunition in his home. When questioned about the discovery during a criminal interview in January 2020, Ablewhite is said to have told officers that he ‘had a shotgun certificate since the age of 15. Between 1990 and 1993 he regularly attended gun club where they shot clay pigeons and skeet with a shotgun.
“They would then go to the pistol range in the evening and use calibre .22, .38, .45 Magnum and 9 millimetre ammunition on a regular basis to shoot targets”.
He went on to add that it was not uncommon that ammunition and unspent cartridges would be left in the shooting vest he wore. It was also not unusual to take ammunition home.
Basit Mahmood is co-editor of Left Foot Forward
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