A former gun shop owner has received a formal apology from police after he was wrongly given a criminal record for six years.
Alan Dignan, who ran Ebrall Brothers in Smithfield Road until floods hit the business in 2000, says the mistake was discovered when he tried to renew his firearms licence in early 2006.
But the 67-year-old, who still deals and owns guns, had already renewed his licence twice in that time with no mention of his ‘record’.
He said his experience filled him with ‘grave concern’ over West Mercia Police’s processing of information, particularly following last year’s shooting of Shrewsbury PC Richard Gray.
At PC Gray’s inquest, it was claimed that his killer, Peter Medlicott, would probably have lost his licence and weapons if the firearms unit had known of his arrest for an assault a month earlier.
Mr Dignan, who lives near Worthen, is angry that no further action will be taken in his case, even though his appeal was upheld by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
His latest letter from West Mercia, dated December 27, apologises for the ‘administrative error’ but Mr Dignan says he still has not been told how it happened in the first place.
The mistake relates to an incident shortly before his shop closed, when Mr Dignan was accused of selling an air pistol to someone who was under age.
But although Mr Dignan was summoned to the magistrates court, the case was dropped.
He said the shock of discovering the error – and having to fight almost two years to clear his name – had caused him to suffer two strokes.
“For six years they had held false information on me which indicated that I had accepted a caution,” he said.
“I would have had to admit the offence and sign a declaration administered by an inspector, but the case was dropped.
“What worries me most is following the killing of PC Richard Gray, a lot of people have said if the police had checked his killer’s record they may have lifted his licence and guns.
“Why have they got this information if they are not going to use it? Why was I allowed to keep my guns and replace my licence? Why weren’t they knocking on my door asking for my guns?
“I believe it’s a box ticking exercise. A firearms offence is Category A and a caution is a result, so they can say they have cleared up another big case.”
In a previous letter to Mr Dignan, West Mercia Chief Constable Paul West promised that a detailed analysis of internal processes would be conducted to ‘ensure that a mistake such as this does not occur again in the future’.
He added: “I recognise the distress that this error must have caused you and would like to apologise unreservedly.”
A spokesman for West Mercia said: “We can confirm that an administrative error occurred in 2000 which has since been corrected. A letter of apology was sent to the gentleman concerned and steps have been taken to minimise the possibility of any repetition.”