UK arms dealers convicted of illegally brokering weapons deals

12 June 2026

Two men have been found guilty at Southwark Crown Court of brokering illegal weapons deals without the required UK trade control licences – press release.

David Greenhalgh brokered the supply of ex-Soviet aircraft, surface-to-air missile systems, anti-tank missiles, and thousands of assault rifles between 2009 and 2016. Destinations included Sudan, South Sudan, and Libya. His business partner, Greek national Christos Farmakis was also convicted. Both were found guilty on 11 June 2026 and will be sentenced on 22 July.

Both men sourced weapons from defence ministries in former Soviet and Soviet-aligned states and used forged end-user certificates to conceal the true destinations. Mr Greenhalgh operated through his "Airservices" group of companies, registered across multiple jurisdictions, in an attempt to place transactions beyond UK jurisdiction. As a UK national, he remained subject to UK trade controls wherever he conducted business.

The prosecution was brought under the Export Control Order 2008 by HMRC's Fraud Investigation Service and the Crown Prosecution Service.

Compliance lesson: UK trade controls apply to UK nationals regardless of where in the world transactions are structured or routed. Routing deals through overseas subsidiaries does not remove UK jurisdiction. See our UK export controls pages for more information.