Gardener jailed for carrying loaded gun

A GARDENER caught with a loaded Colt.45 was jailed for six years today.

The pistol was found in a car Gordon Crozier, 44, was driving while detectives tailed him to the Liverpool area and back.

The under-cover surveillance was part of Operation Nuclear, a six month campaign mounted by Lothian and Borders Police against drug traffickers in the Edinburgh area.

Crozier, of Gilmerton Dykes Terrace, Edinburgh, denied breaches of the Firearms Act, claiming he did not know the weapon was in the car.

But a jury found him guilty of possessing a self-loading pistol and five rounds of ammunition without a firearms certificate on 24 August, 2008, and possessing a "prohibited weapon" - a charge which carries a minimum sentence of five years.

When Crozier appeared for sentence at the High Court in Edinburgh, solicitor advocate Krista Johnston, defending, said he still maintained his innocence and that the car wasn't his.

Judge Lady Clark of Calton told Crozier she was "deeply concerned" about the type of weapon involved and had to take a very serious view.

The earlier trial heard how Crozier was being shadowed by detectives in at least four unmarked cars who followed from his home to a retail park in the shadow of Aintree Racecourse near Liverpool and then back to Edinburgh.

A specialist firearms team, with weapons drawn, swooped on his Jaguar XJ6 and the pistol was discovered in a supermarket plastic bag.

Inspector Darren Faulds, 38, said: "We observed a plastic bag protruding below the battery holder in the boot.

"It was a white Tesco bag. I removed it from the boot area and clearly see a handgun within. It was a silver gun with a black handle. It had a magazine within it so I dropped it out for safety purposes."

Operation Nuclear – said to be the biggest such investigation by Lothian and Borders Police in recent years – also trapped Edinburgh drug baron Sean McGovern.

McGovern, 26, was jailed for a total of almost 17 years after blasting away with a shotgun outside a pub in the Broomhouse area of Edinburgh.

Henchman Terry Scott, 27, who drove McGovern to the pub on night of the shooting in September 2008 and disposed of the shotgun and car afterwards was jailed for five years and seven months.

Darren Elliot who acted as a drugs courier for McGovern on two occasions was jailed for five years and seven months.

A total of 323,500 worth of heroin and cocaine was recovered during Operation Nuclear.