Teenager who tried to import explosives jailed for eight years

A 19-year-old has been given an eight-year custodial sentence after trying to import explosives from the dark web in an attempt to kill his father.

Gurtej Singh Randhawa was arrested by the National Crime Agency’s Armed Operations Unit in May 2017 after taking delivery of a package he thought was a remote-controlled IED.

Officers from the NCA had replaced the package ordered by Randhawa with an inert dummy item before arresting him in May last year.

Birmingham Crown Court was told Randhawa ordered the device after his mother discovered he was having a relationship with a girl she disapproved of.

The court was also told the A-Level student, a former pupil at Wolverhampton Grammar School, had accepted an offer to study medicine at Liverpool University.

Randhawa of Grove Lane, Wolverhampton, was detained after testing the device and pleaded guilty to attempting to import explosives.

He was later found guilty of maliciously possessing an explosive substance with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury.

Passing sentence, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told Randhawa: “You are plainly highly intelligent and capable of determined manipulation.

“You told sustained lies to your girlfriend and her family about your own parents, particularly your father.

“I have no doubt that this offence was motivated by your desire to live with your girlfriend and attend university together.

“How the major changes in your life that you wished for were to be achieved, included endangering the life of your father by setting off an explosion in his car.

“This was an offence of astonishing audacity.

“You obtained the explosives, so you thought, having paid for the device using crypto-currency and arranged for its delivery to an address away from your own home.”