A strictly-Orthodox teacher from Stamford Hill has been freed from court after seven months in jail for the illegal possession of firearms.
Patrick El-Bez, of Leadale Road, whose wife Linda had also been locked up, learned on Monday that he could be reunited with his children, who had been taken into care, after his sister told police he owned three unlicensed guns.
El-Bez, 46, a French national who taught at the Satmar School in Stamford Hill, was given a suspended sentence after his legal team argued that he had not known possessing the old pistols was illegal.
Barristers Jonathan Goldberg QC and Jeffrey Israel said El-Bez was of “exemplary character” who had no criminal connections or convictions, had been unaware of UK law and had never used them in anger or taken them out of his home.
A tip-off from the teacher’s sister, Rachel Bulbil, led to a police raid last year, during which officers found single-shot muzzle loaders from the American Civil War and ammunition, alongside two Samurai swords.
El-Bez subsequently spent seven months in Pentonville Prison. His wife Linda also spent four months behind bars, before the Crown Prosecution Service decided to offer no evidence against her.
Goldberg argued that El-Bez was in bad health, suffering from haemophilia and hepatitis, and that his mistake had brought catastrophe upon himself and his family.
In sentencing him, Judge Nicholas Browne QC stated that although the law required that a minimum sentence of 5 years’ imprisonment be imposed, “exceptional circumstances do apply here… Justice has to be tempered with mercy”.
El-Bez was sentenced him to a sentence of 15 months prison suspended for two years, with a six month curfew condition, times fixed to allow El-Bez to attend his local synagogue for morning and evening prayers. He was released immediately.
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