'Caring father' sentenced for gun possession | Canada

'Caring father' sentenced for gun possession

A former Hells Angels executive member who led a double life as a successful businessman was sentenced yesterday to the equivalent of 31 months for possessing a Sten submachine-gun, silencer and large cache of bullets.
Sean "The Kid" West, who was the secretary and treasurer of the gang's Oshawa chapter, pleaded guilty to possession of the prohibited firearm, 948 rounds of 9 mm ammunition and one count of trafficking hashish.	Hells Angels are a world wide franchise..
West, who offered to stop associating with Hells Angels members, was ordered by Justice Russell Otter to resign from the club "within 90 days" of finishing his jail term, which will finish in April 2008.

West has already served the equivalent of a 26-month prison sentence in pre-trial custody. West resigned his post a week before he was busted in September 2006 and he has been in jail for 13 months.

"Such a prohibited weapon has no place in our civilized society. It represents a grave danger to the public and criminal element alike," said Otter, who also placed West on two years probation.

"He was leading a double life," said the judge, who rejected West's explanation for possession of the lethal weapon as "unconvincing."

NEGOTIATING CHIP
Defence lawyer Owen Wigderson said West kept the firearm as a negotiating chip in the event he was charged with some offence so that he could offer police a firearm in exchange for a shorter sentence.

West, 35, operated a successful construction, landscaping and snow removal business and was a loving, dedicated father to his 12-year-old son, whom he regularly brought to his soccer and hockey games, court heard.

The boy's mother described him as a "responsible, caring father," greatly missed by their son, court heard.

West's other life was as a Hells Angels member who flew the colours.

But West sold a fellow club member and friend -- who was a police agent-- more than a kilo of hashish in July 2005, Crown attorney Hugh O'Connell said.

A massive raid by Project Tandem, conducted by the provincial Biker Enforcement Unit, discovered the dismantled submachine-gun, ammo and silencer inside a cooler at a storage apartment used by West in September 2006, O'Connell said.

"He chose a criminal lifestyle. And he was prepared to 'patch' a gun (make a deal) to get himself out of trouble," said O'Connell, who wanted a five-year sentence less pre-trial custody credit.

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