Shooter’s certificate reinstated as force concedes legal fight

A shooter had his shotgun certificate wrongly revoked by a police force that assumed, without proper medical evidence, that he had an alcohol problem, BASC has revealed.
Cambridgeshire Constabulary backed down after the association’s Fighting Fund intervened, declining to contest the member’s appeal. The shooter’s certificate was reinstated and the force settled £10,000 in legal costs out of court.
BASC director of firearms Bill Harriman did not spare the force in his assessment. “A man of good character has been treated in a disgraceful manner,” he said, adding that the constabulary had squandered thousands of pounds in legal costs “at a time when police resources are badly overstretched”.
Mr Harriman said BASC would examine the conduct of everyone involved and would lodge complaints with the Professional Standards Unit if wrongdoing was identified.
The case is unlikely to be seen in isolation. In January, HMICFRS issued an Accelerated Cause of Concern report identifying serious failings within the firearms licensing collaboration covering Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire. BASC’s own report, published in July 2025, had already shown the unit falling from the best-performing collaboration in the country in 2022 to the worst by 2025.
Launched in July 2020, BASC’s Fighting Fund was established to protect members from unjust treatment and support legal action in defence of sustainable shooting and conservation.