A MAN on trial for handling £100,000 of stolen guns was the kingpin behind the sale of the weapons, a court heard.

Eric Rudanec, 52, of Southchurch Avenue, in Southend, was “an extremely important wheel in a series of cogs” Basildon Crown Court was told yesterday.

Co-defendant Kenneth Slade, 35, of Ferndown Close, Southend, changed his plea minutes before his trial was due to start. Slade admitted conspiring to handle 83 stolen rifles and shotguns, and having the weapons without the necessary certificates. Rudanec still denies the charges.

The court heard four thieves found “easy dishonest pickings”

from a lorry parked overnight in Basildon in the early hours of April 18.

They were being transported by Basildon haulage firm Lorrford Eurospan, on behalf of Devon company Ladd’s Guns.

Daniel Harris, 33, of Godman Road, Chadwell St Mary, Ashley Henry, 27, of no fixed address, Ryan Heapy, 24, of Hobart Road, Tilbury and Matthew Wells, 28, of Godman Road, Chadwell St Mary parked nearby in Swinbourne Road, Basildon, and broke into the truck.

As the driver slept, they loaded the guns into Wells’s Renault Clio, making six trips between the lorry and Henry and Harris’s flats at Poole House, Godman Road, Grays.

CCTV cameras filmed them making numerous trips between the car and the flats with the guns.

The court was shown stills of Rudanec visiting the flat with Marcus Ireson, 28, from Grays.

The prosecution says the visit was to inspect guns for sale.

The jury was also shown pictures of other men loading guns into cars after they were sold the next day.

Although Rudanec was not in the latter pictures, his phone’s signal was picked up on a nearby mast, the court heard.

Rudanec’s phone records showed he made numerous calls and sent texts to the other men involved in the theft and handling of the guns.

Andrew Jackson, prosecuting, said: “It is the prosecution case that from that moment of the theft, over the weekend until April 20, Marcus Ireson, Eric Rudanec and some other people had possession of the guns .

“You may readily infer they were beginning to make arrangements for these guns to find their way into the criminal underworld.

“The Crown says Eric Rudanec was part of that conspiracy and we say he was one extremely important wheel in that large series of cogs.

“It’s the prosecution case it was Eric Rudanec who brought those men into this conspiracy.”

Rudanec has claimed he only went to Henry’s flat on April 18 to buy cannabis.

When his phone was picked up on the mast near Poole House the next day, he said it was because he had given it to someone else.

The trial continues.

FIVE OTHERS AWAIT SENTENCE

ON Monday, co-defendants Marcus Ireson, 28, from Grays and Adam Balding, 31, of Grosvenor Road, Westcliff, admitted conspiring to handle stolen goods.

Ireson also admitted possessing shotguns and rifles without a certificate. The Crown has said it will not pursue those charges in relation to Adam Balding. Jason Balding, 33, of Nicholson Crescent, Benfleet and Mark Box, 29, of no fixed address admitted the same three charges on July 31.

They are due to be sentenced, along with Slade and gun thieves Henry, Heapy, Harris and Wells, once Eric Rudanec’s trial has ended.