The fight against gun crime is being undermined by judges who fail to ensure that tough penalties set down in law are imposed in the courts, a senior police chief has told The Times.

Bernard Hogan-Howe, Chief Constable of Merseyside, said last night that the mandatory five-year minimum sentence for possession of a firearm was being ignored by some members of the judiciary.

Mr Hogan-Howe, whose force is investigating the murder last year of 11-year-old Rhys Jones, said “very heavy sentences” were essential to deter criminals and teenage gang members from carrying weapons. It was, he said, “simply wrong” for judges to overlook the legal requirement to hand down a five-year sentence.

“The big issue for me is getting the guns out of society,” Mr Hogan-Howe told The Times.

“There will always be gangs and criminals but today it is the fact that they carry guns which makes them truly intimidating. If we can get the guns out of their hands then we will make our society safer.

“The message the criminal justice system sends out about the serious consequences that flow from possessing a firearm is an important part of deterring people from carrying guns.”

The Home Office confirmed that the five-year sentence for possession of a firearm, introduced in 2004, was not being uniformly imposed around the country.

The average sentence handed down for the offence in 2005 was 47 months and only 40 per cent of offenders were given the mandatory minimum sentence that year.

In May last year the Home Office circulated a memo to all judges, court clerks, barristers and police, reminding them of “the original policy intention of the Criminal Justice Act 2003: that the mandatory minimum sentence should be applicable to all offenders aged 18 or over”.

A Home Office spokesman said that ministers remained concerned that the courts were still not implementing the five-year sentence consistently.

But David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, condemned Labour’s failure to clamp down on gun crime. “The problem is that the Government is happy to pass tough laws in order to get a good headline only to simply not enforce them – allowing the situation to deteriorate at great risk to the public,” Mr Davis said.

“The Government have patently failed to get a grip on gun crime with a fourfold increase in gun-related violence under Labour.”

Mr Hogan-Howe said that his officers had held meetings with the local judiciary and representatives of the legal profession to discuss the impact of gun crime on the community.

The murder of Rhys Jones last August has made gun crime a hugely emotive issue on Merseyside. There was a public outcry in Liverpool earlier this year when two men, arrested by police in possession of 11 guns, were released on bail before their trial.

Mr Hogan-Howe said: “Generally I feel the judiciary are supportive about what we are trying to do about gun crime and we have seen some excellent sentences which send out the right message. But I would like to see that happen more consistently. Locally there is evidence of sentencing where the power has been available and not been used and that is simply wrong. I want very heavy sentences for possession of firearms which would deter people from arming others or carrying guns themselves.”

The Merseyside police chief said that in addition to a five-year minimum term for possessing a gun there should be a ten-year sentence for firing a weapon.

Mr Hogan-Howe said he accepted that there were “exceptional circumstances” where an offender should not serve the full term.

He added: “Where that situation arises the courts should deal with it through parole arrangements. The headline sentence is what people see and what sends out the message. Gun crime is our number one priority. Nobody wants to see another child shot dead, as happened here last summer. We are driving crime down across the board but all that work can be undone by a single gun incident. Guns remain a huge problem.”

The Home Office conceded that the five-year sentence was not being used as it had envisaged. But a spokesman said that average sentences for possessing a firearm had risen sharply.

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