Zombie knife surrender policy from Labour could cost up to £1.1MILLION

A Labour-backed zombie knife surrender policy which offered owners and retailers compensation for the terrifying blades had 'huge flaws', documents show.

Individuals and businesses were offered a minimum of £10 per knife when handing in three or more blades during a month-long surrender and compensation scheme ahead of the zombie knives and machetes ban on September 24.

The Home Office had predicted the compensation payouts would cost them £14,000, but police data suggests a greater number of knives were handed in than anticipated, meaning the scheme could end up costing the taxpayer £1.1million.

A BBC investigation also found that some owners may have profited from handing in their weapons, with the money offered being greater than the cost of the knife.

A Home Office spokesperson told MailOnline that the scheme's compensation claims had 'undergone stringent review'. 

This discovery comes a month after it was revealed that the now illegal zombie knives remain available to buy online for less than £20.

The ban on zombie knives and machetes was introduced in England and Wales to cut serious violence and crime - making it an imprisonable offence to possess, sell, manufacture or transport them.

The weapons, which boast chilling names including First Blood, Fantasy Hunting Knife and Predator, can be more than 45cm long – and have become the weapon of choice for gang murders and stabbings.

As part of the ban, the definition of zombie knives was extended to include knives that were 20cm long or had any other specific features. 

Ahead of the ban, the Home Office ran an amnesty and compensation scheme and predicted that owners would hand in 472 blades, resulting in compensation of about £14,000.

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Officials have yet to release the actual total, but partial data from several police forces in England and Wales shows at least 39,000 knives were surrendered - 86 times greater than forecast and equating to more than £1million in compensation.

The Home Office is yet to provide a comment on these figures. 

According to the BBC's findings, one retailer in the West Midlands handed in more than 100 blades, while Avon and Somerset had more than 1,000 knives surrendered, external.

Knife wholesaler Sporting Wholesale Limited, whose products have been used in several killings, surrendered more than 35,000 zombie blades - netting them £350,000 in taxpayers' cash.

Sporting Wholesale is run by Eddy Eliaz, a keen angler who also sells fishing tackle. His younger brother, former Young Apprentice candidate Adam Eliaz, is the director of DNA Leisure, which is based on the same industrial estate and also surrendered 1,542 knives.

The latest research also suggests knives of the type banned could be bought far more cheaply than the £10 offered as part of the scheme.

When asked by the BBC for a costs and a shipping estimate for 30,000 knives, one Guangdong-based supplier offered $5.58 a knife if 1,000 were ordered.

It would therefore land in the UK for about £6.15 - after the addition of shipping costs, import duty of 8% and VAT at 20%.

Sporting Wholesale have not provided any comment on whether they used the same supplier but would face other costs above the price of the blades - such as storage and staffing.

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A Chinese supplier also offered to sell a knife model to the BBC which was used to murder a man in Luton in 2023 for £10.85 each, when buying 1,000.

The Home Office told MailOnline that the scheme's compensation claims had 'undergone stringent review' but stressed that the scheme had taken dangerous weapons 'off our streets'.

Labour MP Sarah Owen echoed these comments, but admitted the the Home Office's impact assessment 'clearly had flaws'.

She added: 'I think former ministers who set up this scheme really have questions to answer on how they decided that compensation was going to be allocated and to who.

'But I think we need to look at why it was that it was designed this way, because clearly it wasn't designed for the quantity of knives that were actually handed in.'

The compensation plan was criticised by Richard Fuller, Conservative MP for North Bedfordshire, who suggested the Government should have considered capping compensation payments.

Whilst he agreed with the aim of getting knives of streets, Mr Fuller felt it could have been done without having an 'open-ended cost to the taxpayer' attached to it.

He said: 'Whether or not this particular store should get its full compensation - I don't think it's clear yet that that should be paid and my advice to the government would be to go back and check its homework and see what its rights are under legislation it's passed.'

The Home Office said its original estimates were based on a previous surrender and compensation scheme in 2019, adding that zombie knife retailers did not provide data on sales or stock in a consultation in spring 2023. 

A Home Office spokesperson said: 'All claims for compensation submitted under the 'zombie-style' knives and machetes surrender scheme have undergone stringent review, with any suspected fraudulent claims referred to the police for investigation.

'Dangerous weapons with no other purpose but to harm have been taken off our streets, supporting our mission of halving knife crime and serious violence within a decade.'