A man has been jailed after police seized explosives and ammunition at his east London home.
Ricky Anderson, 45, had stashed a gun and chemicals which officers uncovered after they were alerted to a disturbance at the address in Woodford Green.
He was sentenced to five years for a string of firearms offences at Snaresbrook Crown Court.
The court had heard that in the early evening of Tuesday, September 27, 2022, police were scrambled to reports of a disturbance at an address on Beechwood Drive.
Anderson ran off but was tackled and arrested by officers.
He was searched and officers recovered two blank rounds of ammunition. A Firearms Recovery Dog located a loaded gun nearby.
A search of his address resulted in the seizure of explosive powder contained in an improvised potentially explosive device along with a vice and tooling equipment, around 80 blank rounds of ammunition, fireworks and materials including sulphur, charcoal and graphite - all of which can be used in the manufacture of firearms.
Anderson claimed under police questioning that he had found the makeshift explosive device and was intending to dismantle it.
But he was found guilty of possession of an explosive device/substance, possession of a firearm, possession of ammunition without a certificate as well as conversion of a firearm from imitation to real.
Inspector Matt Freeman, from the Met’s Trident and Area Command, said: “Anderson is a dangerous individual. While we can’t know what his motivations were, we do know that he had equipped himself to do harm using a number of potentially lethal methods.
“It was sheer luck that the chemicals he was using didn’t cause an explosion that could have damaged the surrounding homes and occupants. “Information from the public is key to helping us do our job effectively and I would urge anyone to contact police if they suspect someone is involved in criminality.”
