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| Submit Comments | Comments (33) | « Previous Story | Next Story »

Michael Sammon, 49, from Longsight, was described by sentencing Judge Martin Steiger QC as the ‘ruthless and manipulative’ head of a ‘sinister commercial organisation’.

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'Merchant of death' jailed for 30 years

January 22, 2010

A CRIME boss branded 'merchant of death' by a judge after running one of the UK's biggest ever gun smuggling operations has been jailed for 30 years.

Michael Sammon, 49, from Longsight, was described by sentencing Judge Martin Steiger QC as the ‘ruthless and manipulative’ head of a ‘sinister commercial organisation’ who imported 274 blank-firing guns from Germany before converting them to shoot real bullets at an Ancoats workshop between 2004 and 2005.

Sammon – known in underworld circles as ‘Mickey the Fish’ showed no emotion as Judge Martin Steiger QC passed the sentence for conspiring to possess, import, modify and circulate the firearms, with 30 months to run concurrently for passport offences, at Manchester Crown Court.

His 42-year-old mistress Fiona McIntyre was jailed alongside him for a total of 30 months for assisting an offender and passport offences.

Who else has been sent to prison in January? Sentences and photo gallery

She had harboured him at the Hampshire caravan park she managed while he was on the run from justice and had showed a bogus passport to police who came looking for him.

At the time of his arrest at the Southsea Leisure Park in 2008 Sammon had been on the run for eleven years after being convicted in 1997 of a multi-million pound fraud.

It was while on the run for that scam that he joined forces with gangland armourer Robert ‘Bobby the Gun’ Tyrer from Gorton, in the plot to import the blank guns.

Tyrer recruited David McCulloch, a qualified engineer who was down on his luck, to convert the weapons to fire real bullets.

Tyrer purchased the guns for as little as £30 each in Germany and smuggled them into the country through the post after a courier was caught out at Dover.

The guns, which were sold to villains for up to £700, have been linked to a string of shootings, including the death of Kamilah Peniston, the Longsight schoolgirl accidentally killed by her older brother, Kasha Peniston.

Sentencing, Judge Steiger QC told Michael Sammon was a ‘merchant of death’ who had squandered his talents on crime.

He said the consequences of the trade in firearms were ‘sadly evident on the streets of Manchester, day in, day out.”

Detective Sergeant Jim Gray, from GMP's Xcalibre Organised Crime Unit, said: “It has taken a long time and a lot of hard work to catch up with Sammon, but his past has certainly caught up with him now.

Misery

"He was amongst some of the most wanted criminals in Britain and this gun-smuggling racket which brought the misery of guns to many people could not have operated to the extent it did without him funding it.”

Detective Superintendent Geoff Wessell said: “This case shows the continued efforts of the officers within Xcalibre, who will pursue anyone involved in such serious criminality. “These cases can be incredibly complex but we will not stop until everyone involved in the crime is caught and made to face justice. “Taking people like Sammon off the streets of Greater Manchester can only make it a safer place to live.”

Tyrer was jailed for 19 years and McCulloch six years in 2006.

Two other men, Colin Francis Hughes, 43, of Bedford Road, Lytham, Lancashire and Anthony Key, 48, of no fixed address, were both found guilty of assisting an offender. They will be sentenced later today.

Who else has been sent to prison in January? Sentences and photo gallery

| Submit Comments | Comments (33) | « Previous Story | Next Story »

Most recent user comments 25 of 33

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with a tele a kettle sky tv cigs and a weekly shopping list, as many vissits as he wants he can relax now ,take time to think,a roof over his head four meals aday, his washing done a job career inside.better than hideing out on the run in an old caravan,thirty years half that fifteen a third off that for good behaviour that gives him ten, then the tag. that will amount the sentence to round about eight years. before you know it you will see him back in the local

nigey, halifax
25/01/2010 at 19:01

Blizzard you are an idiot.

J smith
25/01/2010 at 14:52

Rolex - what the hell are you on about?

blizzard, derbyshire
24/01/2010 at 11:23

This is an outrage!! 30 years? To a man just going about his daily business and trying to make a living for himself? I'm going to write to The Times. This country is handing out far too severe sentences lately. It does not sit right at all.

This is a scandal!

blizzard, derbyshire
24/01/2010 at 11:18

Not a result. Out after 15 years. So I wonder if a judge who believes that a convicted criminal should serve a minimum of 30 years, will actually jail someone for 60 years. I doubt it

By the way Rolex (Like you can afford one) most scroats like this are reds not blues. (They think they are tough and bully people if they can't get their own way)

Tameside Blue, Tameside
23/01/2010 at 23:15

"But, I reckon, tonight, there will be tears before bed-time. (I want my mummy - you've seen it.) ;-) " - Laura Norder, Didsbury

Ha, That's what I thought! But I would think it would be an education to those with intent to commit crime if the Home office allowed a journalist to interview those on minimum sentences of 20+ years and tell it like it is. I can only go a weekend stuck in the house before going stir crazy. Joyce has a minimum of 39 years stuck in the same cell. Crazy.

Guten Tag, Manchester
23/01/2010 at 11:36

At long last a positive story on here about the great work done by GMP, another huge Manchester gand member locked up hopefully for the rest of his life, alas though we are still paying to house and feed him on a daily basis - any money recovered should go to the Police and Prison services.

Gankaku69, Manchester and Proud of it
23/01/2010 at 08:57

When you say people get less for murder, they do not. They get a life sentence with a recommended "tariff" of the shortest time they will have to serve before they are considered for release. It is extremely rare that any murderer is released at their tariff date. They will normally serve well beyond this as they have to prove to a parole board that they are safe to be released and this can take years. When they are released they are still on a life sentence and the slightest, and I mean slightest, hint that they are in any trouble or even hanging around with the wrong people, and they are packed off back to prison and go to the back of the queue waiting to convince the parole board. So, when you see someone get a 15 year tariff on a life sentence, he will probably stay in for around 20 and face the rest of his life monitored by the government.

Mickey the Fish, on the other hand, will be released at 15 years and he will spend 15 years on licence in the community.

TheRealWorld ,
23/01/2010 at 08:42

On the run for 11 years? The GMP couldn't catch a cold...

Real Manchester
23/01/2010 at 07:52

ya he might of got 30yrs but hve a look at the system he will only do hlf of that we need 2 bring proper sentence out so when they say 30 yrs they mean 30yrs this country is gettin worst each day

nelly01, manchester
23/01/2010 at 02:46

" I've often wondered just what goes through the head of these people when the judge gives them more then 20+ years inside. Just like the gangs last year being sentenced to between 25 - 39 years, what were their thoughts say 24 hours after sentencing whilst sat in a cell. Regret, disbelief, anger or bravado? For someone to tell me I'd be locked up 23 hours of the day for the next 30 years, I would first think they were kidding, then think about a 'quick way out'. Is any journalist at the MEN interested in interviewing those in Strangeways sentenced to 20+ years in the last few years and report just what they thought and now think? Colin Joyce got a minimum of 39 years, start with him." - Guten Tag, Manchester

Journos can't do that, boss. (Guidelines from the Home Office.)

But, I reckon, tonight, there will be tears before bed-time. (I want my mummy - you've seen it.) ;-)

Laura Norder, Didsbury
23/01/2010 at 01:57

Guten Tag, I don't know what goes on in the head of somebody given a sentence of 20+ years but I do know what goes on in certain individuals heads who are violent drug dealing criminals that are given say 5, 6 or 7 years. It is just a minor inconvenience and it is also a badge of honor on their CV. In the prisons that these individuals have been sent to, they are not locked up for 23 hours per day any more, they can watch SKY TV, play on computer games, go to the gym every day etc.

Then after a few weeks, a mobile phone gets smuggled in and the drug dealing carries on where it left off only other people do the work and life gets easier for the offender. They only serve half of their sentence anyway and before half of it is served they are let out on home leave for weekends or a weeks at a time, where they collect all their profits. This is where they use appaulling acts of violence on anybody that has not played the game or anybody innocent.

I can only assume that the people that are sentened to 20+ years have the same mentality because how long will they serve? and the people that I am writing about very early ino their sentence, scorn and laugh at people that go out to work for a living.

I assume that you would not want to go to prison for one day, but these but these evil people do not think and see the world like you or I see it.

Believe me, I am experiencing this nightmare.

When in Rome,
23/01/2010 at 00:28

Yes for once, well done judge.

When in Rome,
22/01/2010 at 22:03

looks like old fishface will end his glory days in an 12x8 cell - sweet justice well done Judge Steiger and the GMP, this is what we want for druggies/gun slingers/rapists/scroates so we can walk the streets without fear of being shot/knifed/abused...

Jetstar, Manchest`oh !
22/01/2010 at 21:27

now lets see gmp get the ones that use the guns ? manchester bob got 19 years why did mick the fish get 30 ?? anyway the law is an ass which ever way you look at it . they guys should of killed a lot of people and they would of got probation !! its not the guns that kill people is the fools that use them , what happened to the queensbury rules ???

heptarchy, aha
22/01/2010 at 20:59

30 years! Rotting in a hell hole with no decent conversation, observations. His cell may get a lick of paint; he may be moved.

Well he must be a ciddy fan after all.

There is a god after all

Rolex, Manchester, United
22/01/2010 at 20:18

I've often wondered just what goes through the head of these people when the judge gives them more then 20+ years inside. Just like the gangs last year being sentenced to between 25 - 39 years, what were their thoughts say 24 hours after sentencing whilst sat in a cell. Regret, disbelief, anger or bravado? For someone to tell me I'd be locked up 23 hours of the day for the next 30 years, I would first think they were kidding, then think about a 'quick way out'. Is any journalist at the MEN interested in interviewing those in Strangeways sentenced to 20+ years in the last few years and report just what they thought and now think? Colin Joyce got a minimum of 39 years, start with him.

Guten Tag, Manchester
22/01/2010 at 19:41

Woo hoo! 30 years, now that's great for this utter waste of space. Will be an old man, if he toddles out .

jordy, Middleton
22/01/2010 at 18:37

At last. A proper sentence. Live by the gun....rot in jail. Well done Judge Steiger (great name) and the OCU. And if anyone's got one of these evil little "toys", I should hand it in anonymously now before the GMP come knocking on your door. Unless you want to rot in the next cell to the guy who sold it to you.

Al Capone of Atherton, Atherton
22/01/2010 at 17:52

30 years + a 10 year extra bonus would have been in order!!!

the monkey, bolton
22/01/2010 at 17:46

This sentence must have been the icing on the cake for all involved in putting this toe-rag and his sidekicks behind bars. Well done G.M.P.

hjk,
22/01/2010 at 16:13

I wonder if his cellmate has something to say about sharing a cell with someone who smells of fish?

Dead Pidgeon
22/01/2010 at 15:58

SammonWhen i go fishing.I practise Catch and release.but i keep all the Sammon.

canonball, inside the helmet
22/01/2010 at 15:45

I hope his sentence from eleven years ago is to run consecutively to the 30 years for the firearms offences. If so, it means he will never be seen on the streets again. Carry on the excellent work GMP.

Colin the pie, WIGAN
22/01/2010 at 15:32

" Do you think people called him Mickey the Fish to his face?" - Monkey tennis?, yes please

I did, and he tried to (hali) but me. I knew I was skate(ing) on thin ice, so I ran away, but now live in terror as he shouted after me 'whale-meet again', you shrimp!