Killer Ex-Gamekeeper Jailed After Ammo And Drugs Raid

A former gamekeeper and pheasant breeder - cleared of murdering a car thief he shot dead eighteen years ago - received twenty-eight months imprisonment yesterday after police found ammunition and a "sophisticated cannabis-growing operation" at his home.

Officers also seized twelve revolvers and eight rifles during the dawn raid, but a jury found 52 year-old Martin Wise held these as "curiosities or ornaments," and cleared him of illegally possessing firearms.

The jobless father-of-three, of Mount Pleasant, Hildenborough, Kent pleaded guilty to cultivating 48 cannabis plants, with a potential yield of 1.4 kilos, and a street value of £16,000 on June 8, 2011 and possessing nine .44 calibre and two .22 calibre cartridges, without a firearms certificate.

Blackfriars Crown Court heard Wise's life "unravelled" after he shot Matthew Hodge, 20, through the heart with a .25 Baby Browning pistol at point-blank range in August 1995 as he tried to break into the defendant's Ford Escort parked outside his home.

"He has had to live with the fact that he has killed a man and become a shadow of himself," said Mr. Mark Dacy, defending. "He had been confident and gregarious, a man who organised fifty-four shoots a year.

"He was heavily involved in the shooting fraternity, took part in organised shoots and was a member of gun clubs and suddenly all that was swept away and since then has hardly worked."

However, the prosecution have assessed Wise's benefit under the Proceeds of Crime Act as £96,000 and prosecutor Miss Wendy Dennis told the court: "From January, 2006 almost daily cash deposits of hundreds of pounds a time have been made into various accounts.

"He has been extraordinarily busy and the cash deposits are in excess of ninety-six thousand pounds."

Wise claims benefits of almost £3,000 per month.

"There seemed to be something of a manufacturing process of ammunition within the premises," added Miss Dennis. 

"Mr Wise says that when the cartridges were found he was looking to dismantle them as soon as possible and as for the cannabis it was for his personal use," explained Mr. Dacy.

"He was a heavy user and the medical reports explain the extent of his mental well-being.

"There were four or five middle-aged men that shared cannabis, it was a very small, social group and the experts agree that the set-up was unsophisticated, there was only one fan, no automatic watering and no electricity by-pass.

"His intention was that this growing would keep him away from people making profits out of cannabis, selling it at the back of pub car parks and mixing with the criminal fraternity.

"His depression and anxiety is now something he has addressed and he has stopped using cannabis," said Mr. Dacy. "He is a determined character and has moved away from this path.

"He has been suicidal, he is on medication and it is likely he and his wife will be evicted. His housing association home is now a skeleton and he is just waiting to move on.

"The family has been tremendously effected by all this and Mr Wise himself feels he is a targeted man because of the nature of the person involved in the 1995 incident."

Recorder Matthew Nicklin announced: "The defendant was deeply effected by the shooting incident and continues to be so, but he knows first-hand the terrible potential consequences of firearms.

"There were guns on the premises that were capable of firing some of the ammunition in Mr. Wise's possession.

"Also found in two separate areas was a sophisticated cannabis-growing operation."

Wise was sentenced to twenty months for cultivating cannabis, plus eight months consecutive for possessing ammunition and will serve half the sentence in custody, minus over seven months credit for obeying a night time bail curfew.