AN avid collector has been given a suspended prison sentence for possessing a collection of firearms including handguns and pistols.

Adrian Taylor, 56, of Old Road, Thornton, bought a number of replica firearms from a website based in the Czech Republic. He bought nine or 10 replica firearms and BB guns from the website.

He was arrested after police found a number of handguns in his caravan, located at a caravan park in Shipley.

The search uncovered items including a handgun and others were found in a wooden box on a book shelf. Taylor placed the firearms around the caravan to ‘keep them from open view’.

Other firearms were found in a wardrobe at his partner’s home after Taylor directed police to that location during his interview with officers.

Police also seized a number of further items from his empty home in Old Road, Thornton, after Taylor also directed officers to their location in a toolbox at the property as he once again co-operated with the investigation. Here they found items including a handgun, pistol and BB guns.

Taylor thought the firearms were legal to buy as the website stated they could be delivered to the UK, but officers found the website no longer shipped such items to the UK when it investigated some months later in 2018, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Police found transactions under his own name on his bank account for the firearms, dated between 2017 and 2018, for the online purchases.

The firearms were seized on November 7, 2018. They included semi-automatic blank pistol, pistol with magazine, handguns and semi-automatic blank pistols.

Taylor was ‘unaware these firearms were capable of firing in an unconventional manner’ and ‘did not supply them to anybody’ and never fired the guns.

In mitigation, the court also heard Taylor has been left ‘appalled, ashamed, embarrassed, devastated and utterly destroyed’ by the impact of the case and had ‘thought of nothing else over the last three years’.

Taylor was jailed for 20 months, suspended for two years, for 12 counts of possession of a firearm. He was jailed for a further one month, again suspended for two years to run concurrently, for one count for possession of a weapon designed or adapted for the discharge of a noxious gas or other thing.

The court today heard Taylor is an avid collector of other items including watches, coins, DVDs, mugs, cut glass, stamps, football and concert tickets and film memorabilia. He also met the criteria for a diagnosis of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).

Judge Colin Burn said he was satisfied Taylor bought the firearms to collect them, rather than to fire them. Taylor was ordered to pay £1,000 costs and undertake 15 rehabilitation days.

Judge Burn told Taylor: “Over three years ago you broke the law in a very unfortunate way. I treat you as someone of previous good character.

“You have no history of collection weapons or other illegal items in the past.

“I accept you were collecting these weapons because of how they looked, rather than what they were capable of.

“You are an avid collector. You did not appreciate these pistols could be made lethal with modification.”