Crime boss Hardy sold homemade 'kits for assassins'

HE ORGANISED THE SUPPLY OF CONVERTED BLANK-FIRING GUNS

- By JOEL MOORE

ONE of Nottinghamshire's most notorious criminals sold “assassination kits” made in a fellow gang member's garden, detectives have revealed.

Four men were convicted over the operation, in which the kits were packed with a handgun, a silencer, magazine and ammunition wrapped in latex gloves.

Gary Hardy organised and controlled their supply after they were created by Ronald Knowles in his garden in Milton Avenue, Alfreton.

Knowles acquired blank firing handguns and ammunition which he converted into viable firearms.

Hardy, of The Birches, Ravenshead, sent the packages to Steven Houston, of Breach Oak Lane, Corley, Warwickshire, who supplied the weapons to members of the criminal underworld, including known criminal Jason Hill.

Officers raided Hill's house where they found two handguns, two silencers and ammunition in a safe hidden in the garden.