A university student found with a loaded and cocked shotgun in his college bedroom was jailed for five years.
Business student Mohammed Khan (25), from Warwickshire, kept the double- barrelled sawn-off shotgun under his bed at the University College Northampton student halls of residence.
Police raided his room in Boughton Green Road on April 21 following an anonymous tip-off, Northampton Crown Court heard. Officers found the loaded shotgun, extra ammunition, and cannabis. They also recovered an unloaded pistol from his girlfriend's handbag in the room.
Handing Khan the mandatory minimum sentence yesterday, Judge Richard Bray said: " There is absolutely no legitimate purpose, ever, for possessing such a weapon - it is designed to injure, kill or terrify. Worse still, this was a gun loaded with live cartridges and cocked ready to fire."
Khan, originally of Murray Road, Rugby, pleaded guilty last month to one count of possessing a prohibited firearm.
He told the court that he had been attacked on the campus earlier that day and had got the shotgun as protection.
But Judge Bray added: "There is no suggestion that you were going to go out and commit a criminal offence with this but you had a loaded shotgun, incredibly, in university accommodation with students all around.
"The consequences can scarcely be imagined."
