A law-abiding pensioner who was facing a five year jail stretch for storing guns in his basement has avoided a prison sentence.
Richard Watt, 76, from Aberdeen, was handed 140 hours community service after appearing before judge Lord Burns at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday.
The judge had previously heard how police found a corroded sawn-off shotgun, another shotgun in poor external condition and an antique pistol during a search at his home in the city’s Kincorth district.
He pleaded guilty to firearms offences, including possessing a prohibited weapon and possessing a gun while not holding a shotgun certificate, when he appeared at the court last month.
The law states that people who are caught with firearms should normally be sent to prison for five years, but yesterday the court heard how Watt wasn’t a career criminal and that he was also his elderly wife’s primary carer.
Passing sentence, Lord Burns told Watt those factors and the facts that he fully co-operated with the police and pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity meant that were “exceptional circumstances” surrounding the case.
This meant that Watt could be handed a non custodial sentence. Telling him that he would also be supervised by the authorities for 12 months, the judge added: “Balancing these considerations, I have reached the view that to impose a sentence of at least five years would be both arbitrary and disproportionate. Further, because of the history of the matter and your age, lack of record and the fact that your wife is so dependent upon you, I have concluded that the public interest does not require me to impose a custodial sentence in your case.”
Sentence on Watt, of Corthan Crescent, had been deferred until yesterday for the court to obtain reports about his character. At the earlier hearing, advocate depute Susanne Tanner told the court that Watt had no previous convictions and was the main carer for his wife, Patricia, who is registered disabled.
The prosecutor said that in September last year police received information that Watt had told another person that he had a sawn off shotgun in the basement.
Defence advocate Jonathan Crowe told the court that his client had mistakenly believed that he wasn’t breaking the law by storing the guns.
He added: “There was no suggestion that the guns were going to be put to use. He mistakenly thought that by holding onto the weapons he was keeping them safe.”
Lord Burns told Watt that if he had not pleaded guilty to the offences, he would have imposed 200 hours of community service.