A North-East restaurant owner who sold a gun to an undercover policeman was jailed for 18 months yesterday.

David Harvey Noble, 58, searched the stranger for a wire tap before he sold him the .410 shotgun with a silencer for £120.

But the buyer was an undercover policeman working on a drugs case, who had been tipped off about the gun.

Noble, who owned Harvey's, in Darlington, and a restaurant in Stockton, claimed that he took the gun off an associate months before and he only wanted rid of it.

The court heard how he washed the firearm to remove his fingerprints at the handover.

Adrian Dent, prosecuting, said: "He claimed he was being public-spirited in taking possession of the gun.

"There was no ammunition. He said it sounded like an air rifle when it went off.

"He said that he did not like shooting, saying 'If you've got a shooter, you use it. I don't want to be moralising, but some of my mates are busy lads at the highest level'."

Noble refused to tell police the name of the associate from whom he got the gun, saying he had managed to talk him into selling it to ensure it would not be used.

Mr Dent added: "He said that he had saved a life by selling it. He admitted he had searched the officer and that he wiped the firearm before handing it over to ensure it did not have his fingerprints.

"The prosecution say that, if that was his motive, why not destroy it or even better, hand it over to the police?"

Ian West, for Noble, said that he had been short of cash when he sold the gun.

He said Noble's attitude to guns was that they should be kept out of circulation, out of harm's way so they could not be used in criminal activity.

Judge Leslie Spittle told Noble at Teesside Crown Court: "You seemingly did not care as to what purpose it was to be used. Your jail sentence goes out as a warning to anybody who has in their possession or comes into possession of a weapon of this nature that there must be a deterrent sentence."

Noble employs 12 people in his restaurant in Wellington Court Mews, Darlington, and plans to employ another 12 in his wine bar below, which is being built. He previously owned a Harvey's in Stockton.

Noble, of Atlas Wynd, Yarm, was jailed for 18 months after he pleaded guilty to possessing a shotgun without a certificate and unlawfully selling it to someone who did not have a certificate.

Jackie Downs, manager of Harvey's, in Darlington, said the restaurant would continue to run as normal.

"We have known this was coming for sometime and we have a plan in place. The restaurant will continue to open, it's business as usual. We have had meetings with staff, and they are quite happy, they know the position, and their jobs are quite safe."