warning about buying and selling of military kit

[m.durston]

apologies if this has been mentioned elsewhere.
evening ladies and gents, whilst browsing an airsoft forum i came across a post by one of the mods regarding the buying and selling of military kit.
this post was in regards to the new kit which is being issued at the moment to the troops being deployed ie the new ration packs and especially the new camo uniforms (mtp or multi terrain pattern).
here is the link to the thread http://www.ukairsoftzone.co.uk/foru...nce-police-raids-and-subsequent-prosecutions/

andy down at the bushcraft store still has from time to time visits from the military police looking for nicked items and he told me about a guy offering him a pallet of the new ration packs. andy turned him down knowing full well they had been missappropriated and later on the guy was prosecuted by his local force.
now i know the vast majority of us would never have the quantities involved in the individual prosecutions listed, but i know from personal experience having paid legitimately for military items and then having them taken off me because i couldnt prove i brought them and ending up with a 12 month conditional discharge from the civvie courts and being booted out of the TA. all this for a bayonet purchased off a guy at a car boot sale
but anyways enough about me! please be aware that those nice new ration packs on ebay may not have been obtained legally and you could be unwillingly handling stolen property.

 

[rik_uk3]

Not seen the new content rat packs on eBay (but did try a couple from another source) but plenty of the old ones which technically are out of date and got rid of by the MOD. My local army cadets binned dozens of rat packs to make room for a couple of computers.

 

[Melonfish]

Yeah, new rats and the new MTP are on the hot list atm, if you spot it report it because it means our lads are going without!

 

[Shambling Shaman]

Yeah, new rats and the new MTP are on the hot list atm, if you spot it report it because it means our lads are going without!

You make a valid point,

 

[FGYT]

mate of mine has been offered by the rat pack manufacture to be the only legal reseller as he needed to source a couple of pallets legit for a job unfortunately they give a discount (8%) for bulk but not enough to make it worth selling on

they did tell him that most Ebay sellers are on the to investigate list

 

[shaggystu]

....please be aware that those........on ebay may not have been obtained legally and you could be unwillingly handling stolen property.

the most worrying thing here for me is that this has to be pointed out, i always assume that everything advertised on ebay is stolen/fake/generically (spl?) dodgy. buy whatever you want to, just make sure that you sleep well at night, it's your conscience after all.

cheers

stuart

 

[tiger stacker]

MTP is on issue for Ops only, difference between issued and private purchase is open to quality of items. The monkies do a fine job of tracing sellers of HMF property, As Pecoc/MTP takes over more Temperate and Desert items will be sold off.

As for rations well that and fuel has been a source of beer tokens, since Centurion was a rank not a panzer(apologies).

 

[T1Viper]

is there no one these multi climate packs can be bought from? as i've seen some on ebay claiming to be from the manufacturer but theres no pic of the box closed so cant see whats stamped on it

 

[rik_uk3]

The last time we had a (heated) talk about buying rat packs I thought it was shown we were no taking food from a soldiers mouth? IIRC?

The selling of army kit has, as has been pointed out, being going on for as long as armies have marched. I'm not condoning it but put it in perspective, less of the moral high ground.

I just read a book about Harry Patch (last WW1 veteran now passed away), he talked about just about anything that was not nailed down being sold, so this ain't a new thing.

 

[Andy BB]

I absolutely agree about buying "stolen"MOD stuff. However, it must be remembered that the MOD tends to have rolling orders for most of its kit with manufacturers. (Think about it - the last thing you want if a war suddenly erupts or expands is to find out that your supplier has changed his production line and can't manufacture kit quickly enough for your liking. Its basically continuity of supply) Which is why they periodically sell of unused or lightly used kit to get in some new stuff. So not all ex-MOD stuff is stolen property! New kit that hasn't yet reached it's "sell-by" recycle date however (sounds like the new rations kit is an example) is easy to spot and investigate.

 

[redandshane]

BCUK
The legality of dehydrated food
Discuss
lmao

 

[m.durston]

BCUK
The legality of dehydrated food
Discuss
lmao

hehehe
seriously people, everyone knows that military kit has been sold on legally or otherwise for donkeys years. the point i was trying to make is that in view of the recent defence cuts the MOD has started to take on a zero tolerance policy with the resale of kit that hasnt made it to the authorised surplus warehouses yet.
no moral high groundiness ( yes i just made that up) going on here, just a friendly heads up to all the other bushcrafters like me that like to trawl the interweb looking for that elusive bargain.

 

[Harley]

New kit that hasn't yet reached it's "sell-by" recycle date however (sounds like the new rations kit is an example) is easy to spot and investigate.

Rations are a unique example, there are no surplus rations, if food has reached the end of it's storage life (unlikely in these times) then it could not legally be sold on as a 'surplus' item due to food hygiene regulations.

Unlike in the bygone era, there are no longer vast warehouses of stored items. Further, industry has demonstrated that they cannot meet demand in times of urgent need (look what happened in 2003, industry could not supply, given the short lead-in time).

The 'monkies' (derogatory name for uniformed servicemen/women of the Royal Military Police) are not routinely involved in tracking/tracing Crown property - this task actually lies with the MOD police. As many find out to their cost.

Buyer beware, if you want 'surplus' gear, buy from an authorised surplus dealer...