AN illegal 500,000-volt stun gun similar to one used in the murder of a British businesswoman can be bought via the internet and shipped to the UK with ease, a Sun investigation has revealed.

We bought the potentially lethal device for around £60 from the same German store that supplied an electric prod to the murderers of Lancashire mum-of-two Sadie Hartley.

Highlighting weak spots in Britain’s border security, the device — ten times more powerful than the Tasers used under strict guidelines by specially trained police — passed through UK Customs undetected.

A pepper spray — illegal here, too — also arrived without issue.

After examining the stun gun, weapons expert Eran Bauer, 64 — whose firm teaches cops to use Tasers — told The Sun: “This is a vicious brute. This is ridiculously powerful.

“It’s built to hurt people.

“Used on those who have any form of susceptibility to fits or cardiac problems, it could easily kill.

“It’s an illegal weapon. How on Earth did it get through the mail?”

The Sun was also able to ship a second illegal stun gun — billed as emitting 1.5million volts — from a different company.

It also beat customs checks and was delivered to our reporter’s London address.

Stun guns have increasingly become the weapon of choice for drug dealers and gang members who find it hard to get conventional firearms into the country.

They have been used in armed robberies, aggravated burglaries and to settle feuds between crime gangs.

The firm Security-Discount Germany (SDG) was happy to supply a stun gun to a Sun reporter posing as a member of the public online.

The same firm sold a similar device to two British women who were later convicted of the 2016 murder of Sadie Hartley.

The stun gun was used to incapacitate the 60-year-old before she was stabbed to death.

Electric shock devices are available on the firm’s website in a variety of designs, including in the shape of a pink lipstick holder and another resembling a torch.

Other websites sell stun guns in the shape of iPhones.

The Sun chose a PTB Stun Gun Mini II, which sends a pulse between two electrodes within a sleek black plastic holder in the shape of a crab’s claw.

It is emblazoned with the words “Security Plus”.

It appears similar in appearance to the weapon used on Sadie.

In broken English, the site boasts of the Mini II: “The high voltage of 500,000 volts has an considerable stop power of the attacker.”

After making our choice, it was then a simple matter of paying by credit card — £61.99 for the gun plus £11.44 postage.

The site first asked our reporter to supply a date of birth which he ignored.

Then it sent him a confirmation email asking him to send proof of ID which he also ignored.

Just three days later the stun gun had passed through UK border controls and arrived at our reporter’s home.

It came in a brown cardboard box packed with white foam pieces with the letters GB franked on its outside.

Inside, the box contained a full receipt in our reporter’s name for the stun gun and the pepper spray.

Also included was a leaflet which warned not to touch a person’s head with the electric device and to keep it away from children.

Pioneering youth worker Ray Lewis, head of the Eastside Young Leaders Academy in London, said of The Sun internet order: “It’s especially worrying as criminal gangs are well aware of these loopholes.

"It reveals gaps in our system and a lack of focus on prevention.”

A Home Office spokesman said yesterday: “We are determined to prevent potentially deadly weapons such as these from reaching the UK’s streets.”

In 2016 the Home Office revealed the number of stun weapons seized at UK borders has soared by 71 per cent in four years.

Border officials confiscated 729 of the weapons in 2015/16 — up from 425 in 2013/14.

Those found in possession of a stun gun face a maximum sentence of ten years in prison. The maximum sentence for importing the weapons is life.

In April this year Hartlepool labourer James Flounders, 27, was jailed for 16 months for trying to buy a stun gun online.

The package was intercepted by the Border Force. But the owner of the shop that sold us our stun gun and spray is unapologetic.

Andreas Floethe, 45, told The Sun that the Mini II stun gun we bought is legal in Germany and insisted: “It cannot kill.”

He added: “If you order a stun gun you have to check the weapons law in your country for yourself.

“It’s not possible for us to check every person in every country.

“It’s too complicated. The German weapons law is complicated enough.

“For us it’s legal to sell. If a person buys in the UK and they don’t have the right papers then it’s his problem.

“If we don’t sell to you another company will.”

Asked about stun guns possibly claiming the life of someone with a heart problem, Mr Floethe said: “‘I don’t think so.

“The effect of the stun gun is similar to an electric fence used to keep in animals.”

He added that he does not sell to under 18s, claiming: “If you ordered by credit card, then that is your proof of age.”

On the subject of the pepper spray, Mr Floethe exclaimed: “It is also illegal in the UK? Oh God, what is legal in the UK?”

The second stun gun we bought, the 1.5million-volt Uzi Sg 1500 device, was sent from a company based in Slovakia called AFG Security-Corporation.

It cost £65 with a further £30.69 for post and packaging.

Its sales pitch boasted: “A full blast of five or more seconds can immobilize an attacker, causing disorientation, loss of balance and cause them to fall to the ground.

"The attacker will remain weak and dazed for several minutes.”

It adds that the device “ensures no permanent damage”.

The company was unavailable for comment, but its terms and conditions state that “the buyer is obliged to comply with the relevant laws of the country in which the goods are to be shipped”.

The Sun is handing the stun guns and pepper spray we bought to the police.

Used as a murder weapon
OBSESSED Sarah Williams travelled all the way to Germany to buy the stun gun that helped her kill her love rival.

The 35-year-old ski instructor used the device to paralyse Sadie Hartley, 60, before stabbing her to death with “demonic savagery” as she lay at her front door.

A month earlier Williams and accomplice Katrina Walsh, 56, had gone to the SDG security store in Darmstadt near Frankfurt, where they bought the 500,000-volt weapon.

Giving evidence at the killers’ trial, SDG shop assistant Anna Schanz said she had warned Williams that the device could kill if fired at the head or neck.

Schanz, who no longer works for the firm, said: “I explained specifically it can only be used on the shoulders, tummy and hips.”

Weeks later, in January 2016, Sadie answered her front door in Helmshore, Lancs, to Williams – who pressed the 500,000-volt stun gun to the company director’s cheek.

Court reports say mum-of-two Sadie was left “incapacitated” by the electric shock before Williams stabbed her in the face and neck more than 40 times.

Williams had cooked up the plan in a bid to get back with her ex-partner, who had started a new relationship with Sadie.

She and accomplice Walsh, both of Chester, were found guilty of murder and jailed for life.

Stun guns were also involved in the murder of 16-year-old Becky Watts in 2015.

Her stepbrother Nathan Matthews, 28, and his girlfriend Shauna Hoare, 21, took a “kidnap kit”, which included stun guns disguised as torches to the teen’s Bristol home before killing her.

In court the jury heard how Matthews bought two stun guns on the internet for £18.

The danger of the devices was also made clear in 2013 as factory worker Jordan Begley, 23, died from a cardiac arrest two hours after being Tasered and restrained by police officers in Gorton, Manchester.

In April this year John Garrett, 49, was jailed for five years for brandishing a stun gun at a group of teenage girls at Clacton railway station in Essex.

And in October, Lithuanian brothers Donatas Armalys, 27, and Giedrius Armalys, 23, were each jailed for five-years after admitting smuggling 22 stun guns into Britain.