A MAN found with a bag full of guns, ammunition, and illegal drugs at his Bradford home has been jailed for five years.

Mohammed Ahmed, 22, had a 7.65mm handgun, two revolvers, a silencer, rounds of ammunition, and quantities of cocaine and cannabis when he was arrested at Sunrise Court, Little Horton, Bradford, on September 16 last year.

He had previously been warned he faced a lengthy custodial sentence for contravening the 1968 Firearms Act, but the case had been adjourned for further evidence to be gathered as to whether the weapons were real and could actually have been fired.

Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday that the two revolvers, a .357 Smith and Wesson smooth bore Magnum, and a Colt .38 Detective Special, were actually imitation handguns, leading to the charges being dropped.

The handgun, a Russian-made Baikal less than 24 inches in length, was found to be capable of being fired, and Ahmed admitted its possession, alongside a black silencer and a number of 9mm Luger and shotgun cartridges.

His barrister, Howard Shaw, said yesterday that his client maintained that he wasn’t aware the bag contained firearms and ammunition when he agreed to take it.

Judge Colin Burn said that Parliament dictated that the firearms offence carried a minimum term of five years imprisonment unless there were exceptional circumstances in the case.

“There are cases where people have been given bags not suspecting any criminality,” he said.

“You were not given this bag out of the blue, and the weapon was inside the holdall.

“It was not wrapped, and there were also two effectively imitation firearms inside.

“There could be no suggestion that this was anything other than a collection of heavy metal items, given to you by someone who you should have suspected of being involved in some form of criminality.

“It is inevitable they should have given rise to some form of suspicion on your part.

“I cannot justify exceptional circumstances in this case, it is impossible.”

Referring to the handgun, he said: “This was an operative and potentially lethal handgun, that in the wrong hands, could have been used to intimidate, injure, or worse.”

Ahmed’s sentence also included a separate offence of possession of cannabis with intent to supply dating back to December 2013.