Kite handle or dangerous weapon?

As secretary of the BKFA I get a good number of emails from all sorts of people. The most amusing one so far was from a firm of solicitors who wrote

“I would be very grateful for your assistance with a slightly unusual kite flying enquiry. One of my clients has been charged by the police with possession of an offensive weapon. My client asserts that the object subject to the charge is a kite flying handle whereas the police suggest that the object is a knuckle duster.”

I asked for a photograph of the object and was amused and amazed to receive this:

with the explanation that

“my client instructs that the four large holes are finger holes to enable the kite flier to grip the handle and the three smaller holes would normally have lines running through them that attach to a kite.”

Keeping a straight face I emailed back that

“I am sorry to tell you that the alleged kite handle is in fact no such thing. It is of a design that would make it totally unsuitable for any kite flying purpose and I have never seen such a thing in use on a kite flying field.”

which it turns out did not surprise the solicitor who had already trawled many kite sites in an attempt to find something similar as a kite handle. In the light of my testimony, he was able to advise his client accordingly.