Knives - in trouble with the police!

[preparedsurrey]

Hi everybody many moons ago on Jansmans recommendation I bought myself a couple of Enlan folding lock knives for work. I broke the EL-01 a few months ago and ordered myself (or rather my wife did for Christmas) a replacement Enlan and another similar one in black.
Enlan came through fine but then my wife got an email from the police saying to come in for an interview due to the importation of an offensive weapon as a flick knife has been siezed by border control.
Obviously we assumed they must have sent something different so my wife had to go in as it was with prof of what we had ordered, I wasn't allowed to be present but we had the duty solicitor. Anyway border control had called a folding locker a flick knife and she was charged with importing an offensive weapon.
She's spent all night panicking and not sleeping so I emailed the officer in charge this morning and asked how they were classing it as a flick knife and quoting the relevant part of the offensive weapons act and they've now decided on no further action but it remains on both our files. They are saying anything locking and over 3" is automatically an offensive weapon on can not be owned even for work in a private dwelling, had the law changed recently? As far as I remember that would only apply if you were caught in possession of one with a valid reason in a public place? Any opinions anybody world really like to get the whole thing struck off and not have it remaining on file.
I'll post up a link from my pc but it's just a 4" locking folder nothing else.

Thanks everybody

[pseudonym]

Lawyer up.

[ForgeCorvus]

I believe that they are wrong, get a good lawyer and contest having anything on your wife's file..... Yours shouldn't have anything on it either !

Neither of you has accepted a Police Caution on this matter ?

Having just checked the .Gov site (again) unless someone is mistakenly assuming that the knife you bought " .....opens automatically, by gravity or by pressing a button or something else on the knife."
If it can be proven otherwise then its not a banned item.

[jennyjj01]

I believe that they are wrong, get a good lawyer and contest having anything on your wife's file..... Yours shouldn't have anything on it either !

Neither of you has accepted a Police Caution on this matter ?

Having just checked the .Gov site (again) unless someone is mistakenly assuming that the knife you bought " .....opens automatically, by gravity or by pressing a button or something else on the knife."
If it can be proven otherwise then its not a banned item.

Bl00dy He!!

I think they were wrong too.
As a lock knife it may have been illegal to carry without good reason, but I can't see how it is a 'banned knife'

https://www.gov.uk/buying-carrying-knives

I would not have accepted a caution unless really forcefully advised to. But if you came away with no official caution, i'd say let it go,

If you took the caution, then take advice.

[korolev]

Some Questions :
1. Was she arrested or cautioned (as in "You do not have to say anything but it may harm your defence......blah blah" ) ?
2. Have the police seen the knife in question ? Border Farce have form with getting local police to interview someone about a knife they deem to be illegal but which turns out not to be, leaving the police looking a bit daft.
3. Can you post a link to the knife in question.
4. Have they returned the knife to you ?
5. Have the police or BF given you any paperwork ?

A 4" locker is perfectly legal to own and, with good reason, carry on your person (there are specific prohibitions for places like schools etc but irrelevant in this case) but it's not unusual for police officers to not know the law and they rely on people believing them.

There have been a couple of threads about BF seizures/appeals lately on Edgematters.uk, you have to be a subscribing member to view them (it's £5 a year so you could get decent advice for the price of a pint).

[preparedsurrey]

Interviewed under caution, then charged pending further, then we had the email. We haven't accepted anything.
I'll post redacted copies of everything once I can use my pc and scanner. I can't do much from my phone or even access my Ali express account.

[Vitamin c]

Could the knife be one of the spring assisted knives these are very popular at the moment to the untrained eye thay could seem to be a flick knife but legally are not .

Good luck with your problem.

[Ara]

Knives are a bit of a tricksy subject aren't they? Brother-in-law had an Opinel one confiscated when leaving the country. As he didn't have time to argue the toss without missing his ferry, he left it behind. When he emailed information about it to the relevant people he was told it had been "destroyed" and they weren't going to give him compensation even though it was a perfectly legal knife.
I hope you manage to solve your problem.

[jansman]

All of the above!

I was arrested some years ago ( wrongfully- and I sued successfully too) and had a know it all copper try to make out that my opinel ( which I had ground down to sub- 3” to be legal) was a ‘flick knife’. I literally told him he was talking total boll@@s! That didn’t make me any new friends, I can tell you.

I sued, got my DNA and fingerprints removed from the national database, but could I get my knife back? No, it was destroyed. That annoyed me more than being incarcerated for 22 hours.

Don’t let the authorities brow- beat you. I have to ask, did you actually SEE the physical article? Interesting that when you reminded the plod about the relevant law, they dropped proceedings.

[korolev]

In a situation like this I always advise people to take legal advice from a solicitor; many of us on here will have very good intentions and varying levels of experience (I was a magistrate for 9 years) but we are not legally qualified.