Details Emerge Of Keith Richards 1973 Arrest

The Guardian has some of the details of Keith's most notorious arrest, which took place in June 1973 when the drugs squad raided his home at Cheyne Walk in London and found not just the expected collection of grass, cannabis resin, "Chinese" heroin, mandrax tablets, burnt spoons, syringes and pipes but also a .38 Smith and Wesson revolver, a shotgun and 110 rounds of ammunition.

The story goes that Keith was arrested and faced 25 charges for drugs possession and possession of fire arms without a licence, but instead of a custodial sentence that some people were expecting he was fined just £250.

According the report, says the Guardian, Keith attributed the drugs to Marshall Chess, the son of the founder of Chess Records, who had apparently been renting the house. He also admitted owning the guns that were found on the premises and says that the Smith & Wesson was bought for him by a roadie named Leroy Leonard because he had just been to Jamaica and needed protection. "There is some sort of trouble there and if you live there it's best for your own protection to have one. So I decided to get one together in readiness," he said, adding that he had only fired it once to test whether it worked.

In his recent autobiography Richards claimed that the shotgun found on the property was a children's miniature built by a French nobleman in the 1880s, but that the police had tried to make out that it was a sawn-off shotgun which carried an automatic year's sentence. This charge was the only one that Richards pleaded "not guilty" to at the trial.

It seems that the judge at Marlborough Street Magistrates Court agreed with Richards, with the police report confirming that the shotgun had never been used and was in poor condition and only small amounts of each drug were found. Richards was ultimately only fined £10 per charge.

Read more about the report HERE