Grant Wilkinson

Grant Wilkinson (born 1974) is a self-taught British gunsmith convicted of illegally converting replica firearms to fire live ammunition. On August 28, 2008, Wilkinson was sentenced to life imprisonment, with the minimum eligibility for parole set for 11 years time.

Criminal record Wilkinson was an habitual criminal, in trouble with the police at age 13 over a theft and first convicted of an offence in 1995. In 1996 he received a four-year sentence for grievous bodily harm. In 2002 he received a three-year sentence for the possession of drugs for supply. But by 2004 he was free, and he proceeded to purchase 90 blank-firing replica MAC-10s under an assumed name, claiming they were to be used as props in a James Bond film. The converted replicas were sold to criminals who employed them in at least 50 shootings including nine cases where victims were killed. However, Wilkinson would not be apprehended until neighbors discovered his conversion operation and informed the police.

11 of the firearms were discovered at the site and in a field in Buckinghamshire. 39 others have been recovered from locations in London, Southampton, Birmingham, and the West Country. At the time of Wilkinson's conviction in 2008, this left 40, presumably converted, MAC-10's in the hands of criminals.