CS gas pistol birthday gift from wife lands man in jail

A man’s Christmas present from his wife has landed him with a five-year jail sentence.

Andrew Jones, 36, was given a CS gas pistol as a gift when the couple lived in Germany, to protect himself from wild boars when walking in the Black Forest, a court heard.

However, he kept the weapon and cartridges on returning to Scotland, where it was an outlawed firearm, and police found it in a kitchen cupboard in his home in Dundee during a drugs raid. They also recovered 50 cannabis plants, worth up to £24,000, growing in a bedroom, and bags of white power valued at £400. Tests showed the powder was MEC, a drug similar to mephedrone, the former “legal high” which is now a controlled substance.

Supply

Jones admitted possessing the firearm and ammuniton, producing cannabis and being concerned in the supplying of MEC in November last year.

The offence under the Firearms Act carried a mandatory five-year prison term unless a judge was persuaded there were special circumstances to impose a lesser penalty.

The defence solicitor-advocate, Jack Brown, told the High Court in Edinburgh that Jones had been aware that possession of the pistol was illegal, but had not appreciated there was a minimum sentence.

Lord Turnbull imposed a five-year term, and added 18 months for the drugs offences.