Zombie knife surrender policy had ‘huge flaws’

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Zombie ****** surrender policy had ‘huge flaws’

Ben Schofield/BBC

The model of ****** known as k-mach-165 was among thousands of blades surrendered by a wholesaler in Luton

The Home Office underestimated how many zombie knives and machetes would be surrendered ahead of a recent ban, documents show.

Research by the BBC also suggests some owners may have been offered more in compensation than their knives cost.

An MP said there were “huge flaws” in the government’s original impact assessment for the scheme, while another queried why compensation was not capped.

The Home Office said the scheme had taken dangerous weapons “off our streets” and that compensation claims had “undergone stringent review”.

Steve Hubbard/BBC

A pallet-load of boxes containing hundreds of k-mach-165s was part of a haul surrendered to Bedfordshire Police in September

The ban was introduced by the previous ************* government to cut serious ********* and ******.

It widened the definition of zombie knives, which were already banned, to include knives that were 8in (20cm) long,

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.

The Home Office opened a month-long surrender and compensation scheme before it became law on 24 September.

It offered to pay a minimum of £10 per ****** to retailers and individuals handing in three or more.

But BBC research suggests knives of the type banned could be bought far more cheaply than this.

It comes after an

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******** blades were still available to buy online, a month after they were outlawed.

An

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shows the Home Office thought owners would hand in 472 blades, resulting in compensation of about £14,000.

Officials would not reveal the actual total but said the results of the scheme would be published “shortly”.

However, partial data from several police forces in England and Wales shows at least 39,000 knives were surrendered.

One retailer in the West Midlands

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more than 100 blades.

Nottinghamshire Police said

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, while Avon and Somerset had

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.

On 9 September, Luton-based Sporting Wholesale

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to Bedfordshire Police and made a claim for compensation.

There is no suggestion the firm did anything ******** or intended to profit from the scheme.

Among the knives it surrendered were hundreds of a blade known as k-mach-165.

Hundreds of k-mach-165 knives (top) were surrendered by Sporting Wholesale. The ****** looks identical to a blade offered by a ******** supplier (bottom)

Sporting Wholesale, which owns the Anglo Arms ****** brand, is thought to have sourced its knives and machetes from China.

One Guangdong-based supplier, which the BBC is not naming, sells similar knives, including one advertised online alongside a sheath marked “Anglo Arms”.

Posing as a business wanting to import knives into Western Europe, the BBC asked the supplier for its latest product list, costs and a shipping estimate for 30,000 knives.

A ****** very similar to k-mach-165 was offered to us for $5.58 if we ordered 1,000 of them.

Using an exchange rate from 25 January, and adding shipping costs, import duty of 8% and VAT at 20%, the ****** would land in the *** for about £6.15.

Sporting Wholesale would not say if it used the same supplier or if it anticipated it would profit from the compensation scheme.

The company would also have faced other costs, such as storage and staffing, above the price of the blades.

K-mach-165 has been advertised for ***** in the *** for about £15.

Another blade handed in by Sporting Wholesale was the k-mach-572.

At least 144 k-mach-572s (top) were surrendered. The ******** supplier offered to sell a similar blade (bottom)

It surrendered at least 12 boxes of this model, each containing 12 blades.

The ******** supplier offered to sell our reporter 1,000 similar blades for $5.58 each, which would land in the *** for about £6.15.

It also offered to sell another ****** model, which had also been surrendered, similar to one used to

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A ****** similar to Sporting Wholesale’s (top) was used to fatally stab Omar Khan in Luton. The supplier’s version (bottom) would cost about £10.85 when buying wholesale

The supplier said the ****** would cost about £10.85 each, when buying 1,000.

Sporting Wholesale is based in a warehouse on the outskirts of Luton.

Ben Schofield/BBC

Sarah Owen, Labour MP for Luton North, said the government’s assessment of the surrender scheme had “huge flaws”

Sarah Owen, Labour MP for the area, said: “Thirty-five thousand knives off the street is better than 35,000 knives on the streets.”

But she said the Home Office’s impact assessment “clearly had flaws – huge flaws”.

Ms Owen added: “I think former ministers who set up this scheme really have questions to answer on how they decided that compensation was going to be allocated and to who.

“But I think we need to look at why it was that it was designed this way, because clearly it wasn’t designed for the quantity of knives that were actually handed in.”

Ben Schofield/BBC

Richard Fuller, ************* MP for North Bedfordshire, said if the government did not know the size of the market for zombie knives it should have considered capping compensation

The Home Office said its estimates were based on a previous surrender and compensation scheme in 2019.

In a consultation in spring 2023, it added, zombie ****** retailers did not provide data on sales or stock.

Richard Fuller, ************* MP for North Bedfordshire, said the government should have considered capping compensation payments to avoid an “open-ended cost to the taxpayer”.

He said: “Whether or not this particular store should get its full compensation – I don’t think it’s clear yet that that should be paid and my advice to the government would be to go back and check its homework and see what its rights are under legislation it’s passed.”

He also supported the aim of getting more knives off the streets.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “All claims for compensation submitted under the ‘zombie-style’ knives and machetes surrender scheme have undergone stringent review.

“Dangerous weapons with no other purpose but to harm have been taken off our streets, supporting our mission of halving ****** ****** and serious ********* within a decade.”

Sporting Wholesale declined to comment.

The ******** supplier was contacted but did not respond.

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#Zombie #****** #surrender #policy #huge #flaws

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