Gun arrest made after confession to doctor

Morris Miller, 46, was arrested after he told a psychiatrist who was treating him for post traumatic stress disorder that he had bought the weapon.

Miller’s home on Moorbottom Road, Thornton Lodge, Huddersfield, was searched on August 3 last year as a result of the information and the gun was found in a wash basin in the kitchen. A small number of cannabis plants were also found in a bedroom.

In interview Miller told officers that shots had been fired at his home in Decemeber 2010 and the person who did it had still not been arrested.

He said he had tried to make a citizen’s arrest on the man he believed responsible but no action had been taken.

Miller also claimed that he thought the weapon was just a ball bearing gun and he only planned to use it to “wave” the firearm if anyone threatened him.

But a weapons expert found that the gun was capable of firing bullets. Miller pleaded guilty to possession of a prohibited firearm and cultivating cannabis.

Anthony Kelbrick, for Miller, said his client had bought the weapon after he became upset at the “cavalier” way he had been treated by the authorities when his home was shot at.

Mr Kelbrick said: “There is a wealth of correspondence to the police about the lack of action and the way he was treated.”

Recorder Mark Gargan said although there was significant mitigation for Miller possessing the weapon, they were not “exception circumstances” and he had to impose a minimum five year jail term for the offence.