A DOCTOR-turned property developer has begun a battle with Lancashire Police to win back firearms and shotgun certificates.

Ahmed Khashaba, who owns land near Crown Point in Burnley, wants to upgrade to a .243 rifle, the minimum calibre required to shoot deer and also the reinstatement of other weapons.

But police say he shouldn't have the certificates at all and a farmer neighbour claims he is not safe to have a gun.

Mr Khashaba, of Carrwood Green, Padiham, was granted licences by Staffordshire Constabulary but they have been revoked by Lancashire Police.

He is appealing against the decision at Burnley Crown Court, where he told a judge and two magistrates he was a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons.

The hearing was told the appellant has claimed the police are institutionally racist and has made a complaint about one particular officer.

John Sleightholme, for Lancashire Police, told the hearing if a person was to go deer stalking, the police would look at their previous experience. There were deer stalking courses and tuition, mentoring and experience was important.

Mr Sleightholme said: "The appellant says that isn't right because everybody has to start somewhere. As he puts it 'We are all born virgins but we don't all die virgins'. We are not dealing here with virginity. We are dealing with a weapon that is lethal."

The barrister said when Mr Khashaba had earlier been refused a certificate variation he had claimed it was racist.

He continued:"That in our submission is disturbing but then he claimed that the police are institutionally racist."

Mr Sleightholme said Mr Khashaba was said to have had neighbour disputes. One farmer said he had been particularly concerned that he had seen the appellant firing a shotgun from the hip, rather than the shoulder.

The barrister said other worries came to light when Mr Khashaba applied to go on two explosives courses because, he would say, he wanted to build a house with stone from a quarry on his land. Mr Sleightholme said there were concerns by those running the courses about the addresses he was giving an and why he wanted to go on such a course. The people running them, very properly, contacted the counter terrorism squad.

Mr Sleightholme continued :"There is no suggestion that there is intelligence linking this man with any form of terrorist activity."

He added one police officer had referred to the appellant as 'like a man on a knife edge', although there was no medical evidence to support that.

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