A JUDGE issued a warning to others as he jailed a man for buying a stun gun and a police-style baton on the internet.

James Flounders's barrister told Teesside Crown Court there is a "sweeping ignorance" that the weapons are illegal.

But jailing the 27-year-old labourer for 16 months, Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, said: "The message should become clear."

The £14 stun gun – disguised as a torch – was intercepted by Border Agency officials at Heathrow Airport.

When police went to Flounders's home in Bowness Court, Hartlepool, they found the baton he had bought from the same website two years earlier on his sofa.

Kieran Rainey, mitigating, said the baton was still in its "very slick" case, and was a display item, and Flounders had no intention of using either weapon.

“He thought because there was no requirement to have a firearms licence for the stun gun, it was not that serious," added Mr Rainey. "He acted out of stupidity and ignorance.

"There is clearly a problem in people not understanding the law and not realising stun guns fall into the category of firearms, and they are not the equivalent of a baseball bat."

Judge Bourne-Arton told the dad-of-one: “Ignorance of the law is no excuse. You might have had no intention of using it, but owners of these things often decide to sell them on to someone who would use it.”

Flounders admitted importing a prohibited item, and attempting to import a prohibited item.