Elvis lookalike saved by trademark quiff...but charged with selling illegal firearms: An Elvis look-alike gun dealer was saved by his trademark quiff when he was shot in the head, a jury heard. Michael Shepherd, aged 56, was hit when a gun went off by accident as he combed his hair, the Old Bailey heard yesterday. The carpenter, who has worked in Greenwich for 35 years, was leaving a Plumstead gun shop when he was hit.

He said: "The owner was showing another customer a gun as I was leaving the shop. "The gunshot went through my hand as I swept over my hair."

Shepherd, who is nicknamed Elvis because of his obsession with The King, is alleged to have sold illegal pistols to two undercover police officers in a sting operation. Prosecutors say Shepherd was caught red-handed after he started advertising on a website. They claim two undercover detectives were sent to call at his house and he agreed to sell them pistols.

Officers seized a cache of around 900 firearms from Shepherd's house in Wentworth Drive, Dartford, on September 13 last year. Of these, only two are now under scrutiny by the prosecution - an 1887 shot pistol and a Montenegran Gasser. Shepherd, a registered gun dealer with Kent police, said the shot pistol was for Tiger shooting in India and the Gasser was given to him by a Kent police sergeant, Mike Spencer, before he moved to Devon.

He blamed a stash of illegal weapons found at his mother's home on his son Clint, who is already behind bars for firearms offences. Shepherd is accused of conspiracy to possess firearms with intent to cause fear of violence, seven counts of selling or transferring a prohibited weapon and five counts of possessing a prohibited weapon. He denies the 13 charges. The trial continues.

Source: thisishertfordshire.co.uk)

Posted: 24th. June. 2007