Man's '˜zombie blades' under bed in Leighton Buzzard

Kieran Fowler, 22, was arrested at his home in Vimy Road on February 2 after police received a tip-off that there were weapons being sold from the address.

Appearing at Luton Magistrates Court on Monday, Fowler pleaded guilty to a charge of possessing offensive weapons for sale or hire. The court was told that zombie blades are relatively recently-made prohibited weapons.

Prosecutor Toby Earnscliffe said: “Police went to the address, carried out a search and under the bed was a large wooden box, in there were a number of knives including a total of three zombie blades.

“The weapons were seized by police. Mr Fowler was interviewed that same day. He accepted they were zombie knives and he said he was offering to sell them on Facebook.

“He said he wasn’t aware that it was illegal to buy or sell them. He said he’d always been a collector of knives and made a full admission... saying he had no idea about the illegality of the offence.”

Because of the rarity of zombie blades, legal advisers approached the Ministry for Justice for guidance but none was forthcoming.

Defence solicitor John Lloyd-Richards said: “A limited number of knives were offered for sale. They were purchased from a man in Leighton Buzzard, [Mr Fowler] had no idea that the items were illegal.

“They were simply put for sale as Mr Fowler found himself short of money. It was simply a sale of a few knives to help him with his day to day living.”

A probation officer said Fowler worked as a groundsman for much of the year but had struggled out of season.

Magistrates accepted Fowler’s defence and he was given a 12 month community order of 150 hours’ unpaid work and fined £170, as well as an order for the zombie blades to be destroyed.