A man has been jailed for more than five years after police investigating an assault discovered a sawn-off shotgun hidden in his loft.

Officers went to the home of Kevin Brook, 59, on July 21 last year after a report that he had assaulted a self-employed builder with a pool cue during a confrontation on his doorstep.

During the exchange, Brook told the complainant: “You know what you’re going to get. You know what I have in the house.”

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Richard Mansell QC, said Brook had been referring to the sawn-off shotgun which was later found by police, but he stressed that the defendant had not gone inside to fetch the weapon or produced it during the assault.

Bradford Crown Court heard today that the builder suffered deep bruising to his left arm which he had put up to protect himself as Brook struck out at him with the pool cue.

Brook, of Gibraltar Road, Halifax, admitted offences of assault and possession of a pro-hibited weapon as well as a further charge of possessing ammunition without a certificate in relation to a number shotgun cartridges found by police.

“A sawn-off shotgun can only have one purpose, namely the commission of serious crime; either armed robbery or worse still murder,” Judge Mansell said.

The judge said Brook had asserted that he was storing the weapon for someone else due to a drugs debt and there was no evidence that the shotgun had been used by anyone in any previous crime.

Brook received the minimum prescribed sentence of five years in jail for the possession of the prohibited firearm, with an additional nine months for the assault offence.

Judge Mansell ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the sawn-off shotgun, the car-tridges and the pool cue.