A MAN WHO stopped a car to point a fake handgun at a group of children in London has been jailed for over 10 years.

30-year-old Peter Brown was sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Friday 13 April after pleading guilty to possession of an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear or violence.

The incident in question happened on the evening of 25 August 2017 at Wellington Road in Newham in the city, opposite a children’s playground.

CCTV footage played to the court showed a car pulling up, its back door opening and two guns being brandished. A number of youths, also viewable on the footage, fled the scene when the ‘guns’ were pointed at them.

The car then sped away.

Officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Trident and Area Crime Command began an investigation after a member of the public alerted them to what had happened.

Peter Brown

In the aftermath, Brown was identified as being the driver of the car. He was subsequently arrested one week later and remanded in custody.

“Thanks to the evidence gathered he (Brown) had no option but to plead guilty,” Detective Rob Jones of the Trident team said.

Detectives at Trident were determined to find who was responsible. Possession of firearms, be they imitation or not, will not be taken lightly.

Brown was also sentenced to six months, to run concurrently with the other sentence, for defrauding two elderly women out of £1,400 (€1,614).

He and an accomplice had convinced the women that their ATM cards had been eaten by a cash machine. When the women went into the relevant bank, the two men then took the cards from the machine along with the stolen cash.

Regarding the imitation firearm offence, Jones described it as a ‘despicable act’.

“This offence took place opposite a children’s playground on a warm summer’s evening,” he said.

Those who were threatened can be seen on CCTV running for their lives. Incidents like this cause fear in communities and are traumatic for all those who witness it.