A DRUG dealer caught “red-handed” by police with a handgun and ammunition in his safe has been jailed for seven years.

Stephen Todd, 35, was also found to have nearly 1.5kg of cannabis and more than £1,200 in cash when his rented home in Kershaw Street, Laisterdyke, Bradford, was raided.

Prosecutor Louise Pryke told Bradford Crown Court that officers from the Bradford Organised Crime Unit executed a warrant at the property at around 2pm on April 1 this year.

On searching the house, they found cannabis and cash inside some speakers, and loose and bagged-up cannabis in three large black buckets in the living room, alongside some scales and dealer bags.

Inside a safe, officers then found a Webley and Scott automatic pistol and 53 6.35mm bullets.

MORE CRIME STORIES

Ms Pryke said the street value of the 1,493g of cannabis found was £19,758, with the total amount of cash found in the property coming to £1,254.

She described Todd as being involved in a “professional operation”, involving a “substantial amount of drugs for sustantial financial gain.”

He pleaded guilty to the possession of an illegal firearm, possession of ammunition, and possession of criminal property yesterday, having already admitted a charge of the possession of cannabis with an intent to supply.

Taryn Turner, for Todd, said her client had used cannabis for “most of his adult life” and had been drawn into offending to pay off his own drug debts.

She said the gun had been kept in the safe and had not been deployed.

Jailing Todd, Judge Jonathan Rose told him the sentence had to send a message that the drugs trade was “not a passage to easy money.”

He said: “You were caught red-handed. The gun and ammunition were in a safe to which you had access.

“The possession of a firearm and ammunition has only one purpose, to cause serious harm or death.

“You chose to involve yourself in the drugs trade and had the weaponry to back up your involvement in that trade.

“The combination of a weapon, ammunition, drugs, and cash places you in a leading role in this type of offending.”