A MAN who told police officers he chanced upon an antique revolver while urinating in a field has been found guilty of possessing an illegal firearm.
A jury took less than an hour to convict Mohammed Aqeel Khan, 26, following a two-day trial at Bolton Crown Court.
The court heard how on Wednesday, March 11, officers from Greater Manchester Police’s Xcalibre and Challenger teams executed a warrant at Khan’s home on Malton Avenue, Deane.
They found a revolver, made in 1903, hidden under some towels in a wardrobe, along with three bullets in a jacket pocket.
Khan told officers he found the gun two weeks previously in a field close to his house after stopping to go to the toilet and thought it was a toy until he cleaned it and removed the bullets.
He later sent a number of pictures of himself posing with the gun to friends.
When asked why, Khan told officers he got a “bit excited” as it was the first time he had seen a gun.
The jury heard Khan had spoken to a solicitor friend of his uncle’s who had advised him to contact the police, but he had not got round to it as he was caring for his sick mother and was waiting for a gun amnesty to be announced.
Following the verdict, Judge Timothy Stead said Khan would be facing a minimum term of five years’ imprisonment.
He will be sentenced at a later date.
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