SERGEANT Russell Robinson and one of his three co-accused in February’s massive Munster Road, East Kingston, gun and ammunition bust were denied bail in the High Court Division of the Gun Court Wednesday.

The refusals come amid the court hearing fresh information from the prosecution that the former model cop is being investigated on allegations that he — on four previous occasions between December last year and February — stole several guns and ammunition from the police armoury at Elletson Road where he had been based.

Investigators are yet to determine how many guns and ammunition have been stolen on the dates in question, the court was told.

Robinson and Charles Morris, a civilian worker at the Elletson Police Station, were denied bail by Justice Bryan Sykes following lengthy submissions from their attorneys Bert Samuels and Michael Lorne respectively.

The men were denied bail due to the seriousness of the offence and the possibility that the investigations could be interfered with.

Sykes — according to sources present for the in-camera hearing which lasted more than two hours — said the offence for which the men are charged is tantamount to arms trafficking based on the amount of guns and ammunition involved.

Bail applications were not made for the other two co-accused, businessman Garnett Pellington and David Blagrove, who are represented by Tom and Chris Tavares Finson and CJ Mitchell, respectively.

The matter is set for mention again on March 26 when a trial date is expected to be set.

Robinson is charged with 18 counts of illegal possession of firearms, four counts of breaching the Corruption Prevention Act, one count of illegal possession of ammunition and one count of storehouse break-in and larceny, stemming from the bust in early February.

Pellington is charged with 19 counts of illegal possession of firearms, two counts of illegal possession of ammunition and one count of aiding and abetting storehouse break-in and larceny.

Morris and Blagrove are charged with 18 counts of illegal possession of firearms, one count of illegal possession of ammunition and one count of aiding and abetting storehouse break-in and larceny.

The policeman and businessman were arrested last month after a search of two premises in East Kingston yielded 19 firearms, 10,600 rounds of ammunition, police vests and $787,000 cash.

The crown is alleging that one gun was found in Pellington’s house and the other 18 guns were found in a motor car for which Robinson had the keys.

The weapons — which included M-16 rifles, shotguns, Uzi sub-machine guns, pistols and revolvers, the ammunition and the police vests — were discovered to be stolen from the police armoury. The police suspect that the guns, ammunition and vests were to be sold to the criminal underworld.

An additional charge of bribery was slapped on Robinson and Pellington for which they were brought before the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court recently. Both Robinson and Pellington are to return to the RM court on March 29 on the bribery charges.