A Buckie man was arrested after a stun gun he claimed to have mistaken for a torch was discovered during a drug search at his home.
Steven Langston said he’d bought the weapon from a corner shop while visiting family in Paisley, believing he had secured “a bargain”, but that it had been “gathering dust” for years when police found it on July 13, 2017.
The 44-year-old father-of-four, of Watt Avenue, appeared at Elgin Sheriff Court yesterday after admitting possessing a stun gun without authority.
Fiscal Alex Swain said: “Police executed a drug search warrant in July 2017 and found the stun gun disguised as a torch in a wardrobe in the bedroom.”
Langston’s lawyer, Brent Lockie, described the chain of events that led to the discovery as “comical”.
He said: “My client is a family man, who generally leads a law-abiding life, and this item was bought five or six years ago as it seemed like a good deal.
“He thought it was one of those little police torches with a powerful beam, but he never used it.
“It was found in a box, covered in dust, in the back of a wardrobe behind clothes and jewellery and bric-a-brac.”
Sheriff Olga Pasportnikov ordered Langston to forfeit the device and confined him to his home from 7pm-7am for the next 145 days.