A British businessman and an adviser to a UK government-funded body have each been jailed for 16 years after brokering illegal arms deals to send fighter jets and weapons to war zones in deals worth tens of millions of pounds.
David Greenhalgh, 68, a businessman from Croydon, and Greek national Christos Farmakis, 48, were found guilty in June over deals conducted between 2009 and 2016. The pair acted as middlemen for the black market supply of ex-Soviet jets, surface-to-air missile systems, anti-tank missiles and thousands of assault rifles destined for war-torn countries including Sudan, South Sudan and Libya.
Farmakis used his position as an adviser to Greater London Enterprise, a body with local and government funding, as a respectable facade while conducting the illegal deals, their trial at Southwark Crown Court heard. The court was told the pair ran a long-standing criminal enterprise, using front companies and intermediaries to move controlled military goods to embargoed destinations.
Greenhalgh was convicted of 10 counts of being knowingly concerned in acts calculated to promote the unlicensed supply or delivery of controlled goods to an embargoed destination. Farmakis was convicted of nine counts of the same offence.
Sentencing the pair on Wednesday, Judge Sally-Ann Hales KC said: 'Their offending was deliberate, sophisticated, financially motivated and persisted over many years. The evidence established a long-standing and mutually beneficial criminal enterprise.'
Greenhalgh was alone in the dock for sentencing. Farmakis, who fled the UK after being granted bail, was tried in his absence and remains at large, believed to be living in Greece. Attempts were made to have Farmakis brought back to the UK for sentencing, but he remained absent from the hearing in London.
The case is one of the most significant arms-trafficking prosecutions in recent British legal history, involving the supply of heavy military hardware to conflict zones under international embargo. Prosecutors detailed how the pair exploited gaps in export controls, arranging the movement of fighter aircraft and missile systems through a network of intermediaries.
The 16-year sentences reflect the gravity with which the court viewed the offending. The judge emphasised the deliberate and sophisticated nature of the operation, which spanned seven years and involved some of the most dangerous weapons categories under UK export law.
With Farmakis still at large, the authorities face the challenge of securing his return to serve his sentence. The case has also raised questions about the vetting of advisers to publicly funded bodies, given Farmakis's use of his Greater London Enterprise role as cover for the illicit trade.