UK gangland armourer jailed for 26 years for arming criminals via EncroChat and plotting acid attack

A gangland armourer who supplied military-grade weapons to Britain’s most dangerous criminals and plotted to blind a rival with acid has been jailed for 26 years and eight months.

Philip Waugh, 40, from Warrington, Cheshire, used the now-defunct EncroChat encrypted network to offer AK-47 assault rifles, a Cold War–style Skorpion machine gun, an Uzi and other lethal pistols to organised crime groups across the United Kingdom. Under the handle AceProspect, he advertised hundreds of rounds of ammunition to accompany the firearms.

Authorities first became aware of Waugh’s activity in 2020, but investigators initially struggled to identify him beyond his EncroChat alias. A series of messages recovered by the National Crime Agency linked AceProspect to a Warrington man who was supplying automatic and semi-automatic weapons typically used in high‑level criminal activity. Among the chats, Waugh plotted with his associate Jonathan Gordon, 37, known as Valuedbridge, to blind a Warrington man named Nathan Simpson with acid. Gordon replied that he would ensure Mr Simpson received the “full face wash” in exchange for about £10,000. The messages also show Waugh describing a plan to harm rivals and the extent of the violence he was orchestrating.

On the day the hit was due to be carried out, police halted the attack when Gordon’s vehicle was stopped as he fled the scene. The acid plot was thwarted by the investigation.

The EncroChat operation, codenamed Venetic, was central to the NCA’s case. Channel 4 later aired a documentary, Operation Dark Phone, examining how investigators infiltrated the platform and laid the groundwork for prosecutions. In recreations of the chats, Waugh is depicted urging the hitman to blind the victim and to stab him in the leg to prevent him from washing his face, illustrating the level of violence he was prepared to sanction. Further messages indicate that a grenade, described as a “pineapple,” had been placed outside the home of an enemy on a residential Warrington street, though concerns about a child in the house prompted a dismissive response from Waugh.

The National Crime Agency continued to build its case as investigators traced the weapon list and how arms moved from Waugh to his associates and ultimately to various crime groups. The agency also worked with Thai authorities, who had been hosting Waugh after he spent time in Thailand, and with Spanish police after he left the country for Spain.

Waugh was located at a rented villa in Benahavís, near Malaga, Spain, and arrested in September of the previous year after Thai enforcement alerted colleagues that he had left Thailand for Europe. He was extradited to the United Kingdom and appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on April 11, where he admitted a range of firearms offences and a count of conspiring to inflict grievous bodily harm by directing an acid attack. His sentence was reduced by a third due to his guilty pleas.

The National Crime Agency also uncovered that Waugh’s right‑hand man, Robert Brazendale, 38, collected guns from the gun list and supplied them to customers across organised crime groups. Brazendale was jailed for 11 years and three months in February 2022 for transferring firearms from the list; his term was later reduced to 10 years on appeal. He also admitted new firearms offences and conspiracy to inflict GBH, receiving an additional 11 years and four months that were added to his existing sentence.

Ben Rutter, the NCA’s senior investigating officer, said: “Waugh’s sentencing is extremely welcome and is the result of huge amounts of work by NCA officers who persisted tirelessly for five years to trace, locate and bring him to justice under Operation Venetic. Waugh only cared about making a lot of money. He supplied an array of automatic and semi-automatic weaponry to offenders who were planning horrific crimes and had no regard for public safety. He didn’t care at all about who might be killed in the process. The NCA and policing partners went into overdrive when we discovered Waugh’s gun list, doing everything possible to find and seize them. We will continue to do everything we can with partners at home and abroad to prevent organised crime groups trafficking firearms."