Man jailed for keeping shotgun and ammunition hidden in his home (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Man jailed for keeping shotgun and ammunition hidden in his home

9:26am Tuesday 17th April 2001

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JAILED Robert Day was told he was 'horrifyingly lacking in responsibility' after he found a gun at his home and did nothing about it.

The 50-year-old, of Spearing Road, High Wycombe, was jailed for two years on Wednesday by Aylesbury Crown Court.

Day admitted one charge of possessing a shotgun and 250 rounds of .22 ammunition without holding a firearms certificate. The court heard Day had discovered the sawn-off shotgun on November 15, last year, which he claimed had been hidden in his home by a 16-year-old youth.

Kate Mallison, prosecuting, said police searched Day's home and found the Russian 12-bore weapon in a 'hidehole' in the living room with the cartridges and that it was originally stolen in a burglary in June 1999.

The refuse collector told the police he discovered the gun when he went to get some holiday cash which he kept in the cupboard but claimed it was not his although he knew whose it was.

Kim Preston said in mitigation that Day claimed he gave the unrelated 16-year-old a good telling off and he thought the boy would dispose of it.

Judge David Morton Jack said: "Now, even if that account is true it shows conduct so horrifyingly lacking in responsibility as not to amount to mitigation. You knowingly harboured this dreadful weapon for up to three months and the steps which you say you took to deal with the problem were completely and utterly inadequate."

Day was sentenced to two years imprisonment for possessing the shotgun and three months concurrent for the ammunition.

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