ANGLO-ITALIAN CHANGES

Mike Mansfield to take a back seat

It’s a case of evolution not revolution at AngloItalian Arms, as industry stalwart Mike Mansfield takes a back seat with an eye on his future retirement. Young guns Alistair Dawkes and Matthew Panter are taking up the challenge of continuing to drive Anglo-Italian forwards, with the support of Guerini Brothers.

New director Matt Panter told us: “The high level of service and quality will remain, as will the business ethics that the foundations of the company and these two great brands have been built on in the UK.” GTN takes this to mean continuing hard-working dealer days, with the Anglo-Italian team getting guns into people’s hands and letting the experience do the selling for them.

If you’re interested in working with Anglo-Italian, contact Matt (below) on 01564 742477.

showed that all types of shooters face being debanked, at what seems to be the whim of the bank.

And it appears to be the major high street names that are the worst offenders, with Barclays, Lloyds, NatWest and HSBC all scoring highly among banks that either refuse to open or suddenly close shooters’ bank accounts.

Two thirds (65%) of the respondents who had tried to open a bank account had difficulty in doing so and over one third had accounts suddenly closed. In 57% of the cases where the bank provided an ex- planation, it was that it was ‘bank policy’ not to associate or work with anyone connected to firearms.

Shooting businesses recorded the worst discrimination, with access to conventional credit through their banks becoming an increasingly difficult issue for them. They also faced a higher risk of sudden closure (49%).

Dr Conor O’Gorman, BASC’s head of policy and campaigns, said: “Banks should not be arbitrarily shutting down business accounts or refusing to open accounts on a bank manager’s whim and with no ex- planation given. Shooting sports are a lawful activity and we should not be treated as potential criminals by the banking sector.

Ex-home secretary Priti Patel commented: “This is another example of where Britain’s banks are politically compromised. Banks need to get back to providing access to financial services and stay away from passing political judgement as to who can bank with them.”

A Barclays spokesman said that the company complied “with our legal and regulatory obligations” and it would “only withdraw banking services from an individual or business in exceptional circumstances.”

For more on this subject, see Conor O’Gorman on page 30, and ‘We Say’ on page 3.