POLICE have defended their decision to arrest a man using a plastic toy pistol.

Chief Superintendent Michael Banks said that the armed response unit is used in any incident where a member of the public reports seeing someone brandishing a firearm.

"The police have a duty to respond when a member of the public is confronted, even in what might turn out to be the most innocent of circumstances, by someone brandishing what is genuinely believed to be a firearm," he said.

The statement comes after Stewart Philip Elve, 24, of Minors Crescent, Darlington, was acquitted at Teesside Crown Court of possessing an imitation firearm.

Mr Elve was playing with a plastic, toy pistol in a game of cowboys and Indians with his ten-year-old brother, when a passer-by mistakenly believed he was brandishing a real gun.

Chief Supt Banks said: "Police specialists who examined the black, toy handgun that was seized in the wake of this incident were in absolutely no doubt that it would easily be mistaken for the genuine article because of its overall appearance

"Anyone who picks up an imitation, replica or even toy gun and then produces it where it can be seen by a member of the public, would do well to bear in mind that they run the very real risk of initiating an appropriate police response.

"History has shown us that in these circumstances the consequences could be tragic."