A MAN found in possession of a loaded rifle fitted with telescopic sights and a silencer was tonight starting an 18-month jail sentence.

Steven Mansfield, 37, was also found in possession of cocaine, cannabis resin and cannabis bush, Newcastle Crown Court was told.

At a trial of issue, Mansfield claimed another man had brought the weapon, which he thought was an air rifle to his house. He said he kept it because the man was drunk.

But Judge John Evans, who rejected Mansfield's claim, said: "You allowed yourself to be persuaded to take into your possession a loaded and lethal weapon. "I accept that weapon was in your possession for a limited period of time.

"But had it not been for the intervention of the police that would have gone back into circulation, with all the dangers that created."

Sam Faulks, prosecuting, said police went to Mansfield's home in Elliott Street, Sacriston, County Durham, while investigating an unrelated matter of criminal damage in nearby Stanley, on October 15 last year.

He was found hiding and taken to Consett police station where a quantity of drugs were found on him.

A further search of the house uncovered a .22 calibre Remmington rifle.

There were five loaded bullets, including one in the breach, and the weapon was fitted with telescopic sights and a silencer.

Mansfield's fingerprints were found on "all the important areas of the rifle", the court was told.

Tony Davis, mitigating, said it was an "incongruity" that the man Mansfield had taken the gun off and another person further up the chain, had not been prosecuted.

Mansfield pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm, 1g of cocaine, 13.5g of cannabis resin and 5.23g of cannabis bush.