Express & Star

Father bought gun for "boys room" at his Wolverhampton home

A man who behaved like a "big kid" by buying a gun from a car boot sale and displaying it in the "boys room" of his Wolverhampton home has been spared an immediate jail sentence.

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Baldev Sangha pleaded guilty to an offence usually punished with at least five years in prison. But the judge was told that the 44-year-old father of three knew nothing about firearms and treated the revolver as a toy after buying it at a sale in Shareshill.

The .22 gas-powered pistol was found in a drawer when police visited his house in Compton Road, Chapel Ash, on an unrelated matter.

This type of weapon can be converted to fire live ammunition and was categorised as a prohibited weapon in 2004, two years after Sangha bought it, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told yesterday.

No attempt had been made to adapt it. Sangha, an electrician and gas fitter, paid £120 for the gun and three other firearms with 28 rounds of 9mm ammunition that could not be fired by any of them.

He told the hearing: "I was told they were replicas. I only wanted to display them. I wanted a boys room at our previous house with a pool table, darts board and table football.

"I needed something to display on the walls as curios."

Mr Graham Henson, defending, said: "We are dealing with a half-soaked, silly man who was behaving like a big kid buying what he thought were replica guns for him to play with like toys. This is a crime committed out of ignorance."

Sangha pleaded guilty to possessing a prohibited firearm and having ammunition without a certificate.

He was given a 15-month jail sentence suspended for two years with 100 hours unpaid work and £800 costs.

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