Man faces jail after CS gun found in Dundee House
A man is facing five years in jail because of a present his wife gave him to ward off wild boars in Germany.
Police found the self-loading gas pistol at Andrew Jones' Dundee home during a drugs raid which also uncovered a cannabis farm.
At the High Court in Edinburgh the 36-year-old pleaded guilty to a total of seven breaches of the Firearms Act and the Misuse of Drugs Act.
The court heard he was given the gun as a Christmas gift when working abroad.
Lord Turnbull called for background reports and allowed Jones to remain on bail pending sentence next month.
The court was told on 6 November 2011, police searched Jones' house in Craigievar Walk in Dundee.
Advocate depute Pinot Di Emidio, prosecuting, said officers detected a smell of cannabis upon entering the property.
He said they found 50 cannabis plants in a bedroom and a hydroponics system for tending them.
A shoe box in the kitchen contained scales and cocaine-like drug Methylethcathinone (MEC).
The court heard that the cannabis plants might have yielded a crop worth between £8,000 and £24,000 and the MEC was worth up to £400 on the streets.
Gun and ammunition
After he was taken to Dundee's police headquarters Jones seemed nervous and eventually told officers: "You are going to find it anyway. I've got a gun in the kitchen cupboard."
They returned to Craigievar Walk and found the pistol. They also found seven rounds of ammunition marked either "Pepper" or "CS".
Judge Lord Turnbull was told that the accused had previously worked in Germany.
Mr Di Emidio said police asked Jones about the pistol: "He stated that this was a CS gas pistol which was a Christmas present from his wife from when they lived in Germany and that it could be used to protect oneself from wild boars when walking in the Black Forest."
Five year sentence
Firearms experts said it was designed to fire 9mm irritant gas cartridges or blanks.
The court was told that the Firearms Act demands a sentence of at least five years for the possession of such a weapon, except in unusual circumstances.
Solicitor advocate Jack Brown, defending, said Jones had lost his job and others in the area, knowing he was short of cash, asked him to let them have a room to grow cannabis.
He said: "His difficulty was that he was unaware of how big an enterprise this was to become."