A man who spent time in prison for threatening to shoot his colleagues because they teased him kept a cache of guns in a storage container in Inverness.
David Collins was 27 when he went to jail for a firearms offence because workmates whistled ‘The Addams Family’ theme tune when he passed.
Yesterday, over a decade later, he was heading back behind bars after admitting having a stash of weapons and ammunition in the city.
The 39-year-old’s cache included a deactivated Makarov 9mm pistol, two magazines with eight 9mm cartridges containing full metal jacketed bullets, a silencer, telescopic sights and air rifles and air pistols, a deactivated .38 Webley revolver and flare pistol; and five containers of .22 air weapon ammunition.
The court was told that Collins had the knowledge to reactivate weapons and when asked by police if he intended to harm anyone, he replied: “No, not at the moment.”
Fiscal Roderick Urquhart told the court the offence came to light after a cargo supervisor at East Midlands Airport carried out an x-ray examination of a suspect package addressed to Collins in June – and found the pistol and bullets.
He added: “Although he could legitimately possess such articles, this find together with recent intelligence raised a fear that he might be reactivating weapons.”
In a search of his homeless accommodation in Inverness, officers discovered a key fob to a storage container with more weapons.
Mr Urquhart went on: “Collins was arrested and was asked if he was currently thinking about using a firearm to cause harm to anyone. His response to this was “Not at the moment, No.”
“He claimed that none of the weapons in his possession could be re-activated.” Mr Urquhart said.
Defence advocate Bill Adam said: “Because of his obsession, he tinkered with firearms, and didn’t have them to fire. He is not a man of violence and I would say he is not a real risk to the public.”
In 2005 at the High Court in Edinburgh, Collins admitted possessing firearms with intent, causing his mother Ann and brothers, Christopher and Robert, to believe that violence would be used against them.
The charge went on to claim that his family also believed police, bus drivers and employees of an Invergordon cosmetics firm and others were also a target.
Workers told police at the time they would jokingly whistle the tune to the comedy TV programme about a macabre family because they thought he was creepy.
