A Chinese businessman has been jailed for one year after brandishing a shotgun at a council bailiff who was trying to clamp his PORSCHE and BMW X5.
Cam Mu, 37, flew into a rage when Christopher Simcock tried to clamp the prized sportscars on his own driveway.
He told the bailiff ”I’m going to get my rifle and I’m going to shoot you” only to return and pull the stock of a Browning shotgun from its case.
The bailiff visited Mu’s home in a bid to retrieve £4,000 in tax and fees owed by the restaurateur to North Somerset District Council.
But a ”heated” situation ensued with Mu trying to block Mr Simcock from clamping the vehicle before bringing out a shotgun in a bag and pulling out the stock of the gun.
Mu, of Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, wept as he was jailed for one year at Bristol Crown Court for possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.
Sentencing Mu Judge Carol Hagen said: ”It has to be a prison sentence. I have a public duty. Someone who produces a gun, albeit for seconds, cannot go unpunished and it has to be an immediate custodial sentence.
”Mr Simcock was going about his lawful business. He was entitled to demand the sum you owed.
”If you had paid it when it was due you wouldn’t be here now. People such as Mr Simcock have got to be protected.”
Mr Simcock, who is employed by Rossendales Ltd debt collection agency, had been authorised to go to Mr Mu’s house by the council to collect the outstanding debt.
He visited three times without seeing the restaurateur and nightclub owner before returning a fourth time at 7am on November 5th last year.
He explained he was there to collect the £4,000 debt but believing he wouldn’t be paid set about clamping the Porsche in the driveway along with a BMW X5.
But father-of-three Mu, who arrived in the UK as a refugee in 1979, protested saying his wife needed the X5 for the school run and Mr Simcock left the vehicle.
He told the court a ”heated” situation ensued as Mu tried to block him from clamping the Porsche, which has a personalised ”5-MU” number plate and was actually owned by Mu’s brother.
Suddenly he said: ”I’m going to get my rifle and I’m going to shoot you.”
Mr Simcock said Mu then returned to his house and came out with a four foot long blue bag.
He told the court: ”He unzipped the bag, he put his hand in and he pulled the stock of a gun, and pulled it out a few inches.
”He did it from the passenger side of the Porsche. He didn’t say anything. He was looking at me.”
Judge Hagen said Mu should have been punished with two years imprisonment but that she had reduced the sentence to reflect the good work the businessman has done in the community.
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its a shame he didnt pull the trigger!!
I’m hardly surprised that Mu did this.. From what I’ve seen Mr Simcock is hardly known for conducting himself within the law..
Simcock is a coward who will happily terrorise a woman on her own. He’s a coward.
Mr Simcock does not go about his ‘lawful business’. I myself had the misfortune to have dealings with this lowlife last November 2013. I am a single woman with a severe medical condition, whom he decided to label a liar when i also pointed out that i had had hospital treatment and police intervention twice in the last 6 weeks. He proceeded to spit out the dummy when i informed him that he was not coming into my flat, and tried to take a car that belongs to my mother. He said that i am the owner cos i am insured on it and have keys. Insurance means nothing, and even when i produced a note from DVLA stating that i was not the owner – he proceeded to intimidate me and threaten me.
I am insured to drive any vehicle, and also had two other sets of keys belonging to my neighbour who’s car i was going to be working on that day.
I have kidney problems, yet i was outside in the freezing cold in just a pair of light pj’s
And barefoot. He wouldnt even let me go back into my flat to put a coat and shoes on. I had to go to hospital later to have stitches in my right foot because it was cut to pieces from being outside barefoot. He’s a coward who thinks that kind of behaviour is acceptable. I have made a formal compkaint, and will keep fighting.