Gambler faces jail over guns

Sep 24 2008 by Hilary Clixby, The Journal

A COMPULSIVE gambler who failed in his bid to win more than £2m damages from William Hill bookmakers may face jail after admitting firearms offences.

Greyhound trainer Graham Calvert claims he had the weapons for protection after a series of attacks by people he owed money to as a result of his addiction.

He admitted possessing a prohibited weapon – a handgun with a barrel less than 30cm in length – and having a shotgun without a firearms certificate on September 14 last year. He also admitted possessing cocaine with intent on the same date and having an offensive weapon, a knife, on various roads near his home between January and September 14 last year.

He had been due to stand trial at Newcastle Crown Court but pleaded guilty to the charges yesterday and was further remanded on bail after sentence was adjourned for three weeks.

Christopher Knox, defending, said Calvert, 29, of Sedgeletch Farm, Houghton-le- Spring, near Sunderland, had been under very considerable pressure at the time of the offences. He said there had been a number of attacks on Calvert’s property and Calvert had been attacked himself – on one occasion being chased and having his arm broken.

Mr Knox said: “There was a huge element of stress which arose as a result of his debts and the unorthodox methods by some of those to whom he owed money to collect debt.”

Mr Knox told the court that Calvert had started out as a greyhound trainer as a teenager, rising to become one of the most successful, if not the most successful, trainers nationally.

But the father-of-two had become hopelessly addicted to gambling, funding his addiction with loans after gambling away his own money.

Calvert hit the national headlines earlier this year when he sued William Hill in the High Court for £2.1 damages – money he claimed he lost through gambling between June and December 2006.

He claimed the company had allowed him to place bets when he had twice asked them to close his account under a self-exclusion scheme which had been designed to protect problem or pathological gamblers.

But a judge ruled William Hill, which denied liability, did not have to award damages despite finding the company had failed in its duty of care.

Calvert, who says he has given up gambling, is appealing against the ruling.