Two businessmen who brokered illegal arms deals to send ex-Soviet surface-to-air missiles and MiG29 fighter jets to warzones around the world have been jailed.

Christos Farmakis, 48, and David Greenhalgh, 68, obtained weapons from former communist countries and sold them to embargoed countries across Africa and the Middle East.

They offered AK47 assault rifles, ammunition, bombs, rocket propelled grenades, anti-tank guided missiles, fighter jets and tanks to ‘armed groups in some of the most unstable and repressive countries in the world’.

Edward Burge, KC, prosecuting, told Southwark Crown Court the weapons were offered ‘with no paperwork required and no licence from the UK applied for or obtained’.

The pair were found guilty in June of illegal arms deals worth tens of millions of pounds between 2009 and 2016 and were each jailed for 16 years today.

Judge Sally-Ann Hales KC said: ‘Their offending was deliberate, sophisticated, financially motivated and persisted over many years.

‘The evidence established a long-standing and mutually beneficial criminal enterprise.’

Greenhalgh denied but was earlier convicted by a jury of ten counts of being involved in prohibited weapons sales, between 1 July 2009 and 30 January 2016.

He supplied Russian MiG29, Su25, and Su27 fighter jets and Mil Mi-24V attack helicopters to Sudan between 2009 and 2011 during the war in Darfur.

Farmakis absconded before the trial and was convicted of nine similar charges in his absence.

The case follows a seven-year investigation by HMRC into breaches of arms embargo, making it one of the most significant allegations of weapon sales to reach a UK court.

Greenhalgh was jailed for 16 years while Farmakis received the same jail sentence in his absence.

During the two-month trial jurors were shown emails between Greenhalgh and Farmakis discussing how to get weapons to Iraq and where paperwork might be obtained from without disclosing the end destination to the UK.

One email shows Greenhalgh offering to deliver 100,000 weapons to South Sudan along with 50 million rounds of ammunition valued of more than $14 million.

Greenhalgh and Farmakis also offered to supply ex-Soviet fighter jets to Libya and discussed ‘how to get these jets inspected and safely delivered to Libya without drawing attention of the authorities’.

Judge Hales said Greenhalgh presented at trial ‘as someone who is something of a wheeler and dealer’ who was able to use his experience for projects including exporting second-hand clothing to Africa, a sugar refinery, copper mine or a theme park.

‘Those achievements make your conscious decision to engage in serious criminal conduct all the more disappointing,’ she added.

Farmakis used his position as an adviser to Greater London Enterprise (GLE), a body with local and Government funding, as a respectable facade while conducting the illegal deals, their trial heard.

Greenhalgh, a businessman from Croydon, used his Airservices group of companies, which were registered across multiple countries including the UK, Greece, North Macedonia and South Sudan, to strike the deals, which he referred to in emails as ‘sensitive projects’.

He attempted to use his international network of companies to get around British sanctions and trade embargoes.

James Hines KC, defending Greenhalgh, highlighted his client’s age and lack of previous convictions in mitigation.

Of the January 2012 meeting with HMRC in which Greenhalgh was told he must obtain UK licences because of his British nationality, Mr Hines said his client believed the same obligation did not apply to his Greek co-defendant Farmakis.

Edwige Hill, deputy director in HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service, said: ‘Strict export licensing controls exist to protect the UK and to ensure that military equipment does not fall into the wrong hands.

‘Greenhalgh knowingly and repeatedly circumvented those controls, forging documents and routing deals through overseas companies to evade detection.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, .

MORE: Lawyer whose gun failed as he tried to shoot ex-wife in busy restaurant is jailed

MORE: Girl, 5, shot dead in car after ‘road rage’ incident

MORE: Strictly’s Joe Sugg left ‘distressed’ after being stalked by American man for 4 years