Osbaston House killer's brother wants higher gun licence fees

The brother of a businessman who shot dead his wife and daughter has joined calls for gun licence fees to increase to help prevent future killings.

Christopher Foster killed his family and then himself in 2008 in Shropshire with a gun he was licensed to use.

A five-year firearms licence costs £88 and Andrew Foster said it should rise to meet the costs of issuing them and better fund police licensing units.

"These tragedies still keep happening, affecting families," he said.

"You won't stop them in their entirety but you will lower the percentage of these incidents if it was properly funded and properly managed.

"It shocks me it is still comparatively cheap at £88."

Christopher Foster killed his wife Jill, daughter Kirstie and also their horses and dogs at Osbaston House, near Maesbrook. He set fire to their home before killing himself.

His brother, from Wolverhampton, said the horrific ordeal still affected his family 15 years on.

"Every time we see something on the TV, a tragedy, it sort of brings it all back and then we see the issues that keep arising that have not been resolved," he said.

Earlier this year, policing Minister Chris Philp announced a review of firearms licensing fees. A second consultation into firearms licensing ends on Wednesday.

It followed the mass shooting in Plymouth in which Jake Davison, 22, used a legally-held shotgun to kill his mother Maxine Davison, 51, and four others before shooting himself on 12 August 2021.

Emma Ambler, of Birmingham, whose sister Kelly Fitzgibbons and her two daughters were killed in March 2020 by her partner who then killed himself, is also campaigning for licences to cost more.

Both Staffordshire and West Midlands' police and crime commissioners (PCC) have called for the fees to change as they do not cover the full price of issuing them.

They lose money for every gun licence application due to the cost of vetting people and other bureaucracy, officials said.

In Staffordshire, the shortfall annually was about £300,000, the county's PCC Ben Adams said.

"It's a really important industry for Staffordshire, [licenced gun users] want a good service and in the main I think they are prepared to pay for it through their licence," he added.

Firearms owners have experienced delays in getting licences granted or renewed, according to Martin Parker, from the British Association for Shooting and Conservation.

Speaking at a game fair in Warwickshire, he said he expected fees to see a "substantial increase".

"I think most certificate holders would be reasonably comfortable with that, having not had an increase for 10 years, provided there was a level of service which supported it," he said.

A spokesperson for the Home Office said Britain has "some of the toughest gun laws in the world" and it was in the process of reviewing licensing fees ahead of a consultation "in due course".

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