A CONVICTED armed robber, described as being proud to possess firearms, has been jailed for eight years.

Sean Kavanagh, 31, was found to be in possession of a sawn-off single barrel pump action shotgun.

Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday that burly bodybuilder Kavanagh had been sentenced to ten years imprisonment in 2008 for armed robbery and possessing a sawn-off shotgun.

The court heard that a report at the time in the Telegraph & Argus told how Kavanagh had posed with the weapon for a mobile phone snapshot - a week after he had brandished it to terrorise staff and customers at a bookmaker's shop. The two other robbers were armed with a handgun and a hammer during the terrifying raid at the Coral betting shop in Allerton Road, Allerton.

CCTV footage of the raid showed Kavanagh waving the sawn off shotgun towards staff.

Jailing him yesterday, the Recorder of Bradford, Judge Roger Thomas QC, said Kavanagh seemed to have a liking for weaponry and a pride in possessing the sawn-off shotgun in 2008.

He said the defendant's liking for firearms had arisen again and he had once more been found in possession of a prohibited weapon which had a barrel fewer than 24 inches in length.

Judge Thomas said: "In my judgement, this is an offence of its type which is as serious as it gets. It was a pump action shotgun, loaded with live ammunition.

"It was obviously hidden away, it was in proper working order, and who knows to what purpose it could have been turned."

Judge Thomas said the basis of Kavanagh's possession of the weapon was not clear, but it was about "real criminality".

Kavanagh, of Hayes Crescent, Thornton, Bradford, had pleaded guilty to possessing the prohibited weapon on a basis, which was not acceptable to the prosecution.

He gave evidence to the judge that he had amassed a £3,500 debt to a drug dealer after getting addicted to cocaine.

Kavanagh said the dealer had offered to quash the debt, or part of it, if he looked after the gun for him. He said the dealer had handed over the gun and he had covered it with a towel and placed it between garages near to a friend's house in Oakenshaw.

Kavanagh, a former soldier with a seven-year-old daughter, said he then changed his mind and rang the dealer to tell him.

But Judge Thomas rejected his evidence and said: "Your pathetic attempts to belittle your possession with this cock and bull tale you have told to police and to me, substantially diminishes the credit that can be extended."

In mitigation, Kavanagh's barrister, Alan Taylor, said it was a single weapon involved. His client's partner had a serious illness and he had reacted by "dabbling with the poison of cocaine" which had caused him to go out of control.

Kavanagh, who had worked as a painter and decorator and in demolition, was on licence from the previous sentence when he committed the offence. He had been recalled to prison.

After the case, Detective Constable John Gacquin, of Bradford District CID, said: "Kavanagh refused to answer questions about his access to firearms and possible matters relating to this offence, but forensic tests of the weapon showed it had been in his possession.

"We hope today's sentence will serve as a warning to others that firearms offences will not be tolerated in Bradford District."