How DIY criminals are converting fake pistols into lethal firearms from granny’s garages in terrifying national epidemic

GANGSTER Daniel Wren’s elderly grandparents must have thought he had an obsession with cars.

He spent hours tinkering away in the garage of their home but behind the shuttered doors Wren was running a gun factory that converted blank pistols to live firearms.

When cops raided his home they found five revolvers, ammunition, two 3D printers and even a .

The 27-year-old has now been jailed six years for running his illicit workshop while his half brother was also caged for .

The Sun can today reveal Britain’s streets are being flooded with which can easily be modified into the real thing.

Almost 2000 fakes were discovered in the 12 months to March this year – equating to 38 percent of all .

It’s almost double the 20 per cent recorded in the first year of the pandemic in 2019.

One expert told us how organised crime is turning to replicas to save cash.

Ex-Sussex detective Martyn Underhill said: “They sell for about half the price of real weapons so they are not that expensive.”

The retired DCI, who worked on the high-profile murder inquiry of eight-year-old in 200, said: “These imitations achieve the desired outcome because the public or the victim believe they are real.

“The expression flooding in is a good one to describe what’s happening.

“The stats are going up.

“Any firearm increase is worrying but if the imitations are coming in more, you have to ask why and I imagine that is because of cost.”

Martyn, who was the police and crime commissioner for Dorest for almost a decade, said while some criminals rely on fakes, gang warfare involves real weapons.

He said: “They don’t use imitations because they want to kill each other.”

More than a third of all recorded gun crime now involves fake weapons – almost double the 20percent during the pandemic.

Figures from the Office of National Statistics show that 38percent of guns used last year are phony equating to 1,957 cases – compared to 20percent in 2019/20.

Daniel Wren, 27, was the head of a gang converting guns from his grandparents’home in Bakersfield, east Nottingham.

The city’s crown court heard how the gang took blank-firing pistols that had their barrels constricted and made them into lethal weapons.

When the gun factory was raided in October last year, cops found guns, ammunition and tools.

They went on to bust Wren’s home in St Ann’s, Nottingham, where they found other guns as well as a 3D printer and hand grenade.

It’s known that such printers are used to produce 3D replicas.

A search of his half-brother Kerrigan Wright’s home also found blank pistols and ammunition.

The 35- year-old was jailed two years after being found guilty of converting an imitation firearm.

Other associates were also given jail time.

Sean Bates, 36, of Netherfield, Nottinghamshire, was given four-and-a-half years for converting a gun and an unrelated charge of being concerned in the supply of cocaine.

Quisar Iqbal, 33, of Mapperley, Notts, was also given four-and-a-half years for modifying a gun.

He has a previous conviction for possessing a disguised firearm from 2016.

Many replica guns are shipped into Britain from Eastern Europe.

In 2022, cops uncovered a conversion workshop being run from the kitchen of a house in where handguns were being modified.

It supplied criminals across the north of England.

Thomas Robinson, 38, and Junaid Ali, 24, were sent replica weapons from Eastern Europe.

Robinson was jailed for 13 years and six months and Ali was jailed for eight years and three months after they admitted their roles in the operation.

Dale Bates, 29, was given five years for his involvement as a customer.

Martyn Underhill said criminals with fake guns were gambling with their own lives as armed police have no idea if weapons are real or not.

He said: ““It’s a bit of a fool’s errand really because it increases the risk of them being shot by armed police, so it doesn’t really do them any favours does it?

“The police officer is going to draw and shoot, not knowing whether that’s a real weapon.”

In 2019, Hull man Andrejs Saveljevs was shot in the shoulder by officers after brandishing a replica handgun in the street.

The 35-year-old food factory worker was later jailed two-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to possessing an imitation 9mm calibre Beretta pistol.

One undercover cop told how he was forced to drive into a thug as he pointed a fake gun at his partner.

Jack Dawe, who has written a book about his role called Hard Stop, said he was forced to ram his car into the suspect, who went flying into the air “like a ragdoll” before smashing through the windscreen.

Jack said: “These replicas are designed to look real and if someone ever pointed one at you, you have a split second to decide, fight or flight.

“I chose to fight.

“People are too quick to judge the actions of the police with no understanding of violence.

“ There is a large proportion of society who have never faced physical violence in their lives and have no idea what strength it takes to make an arrest using proportionate force against an uncooperative suspect, some of whom are on drugs and possess an almost superhuman strength.”