Police who raided a house in Haverfordwest looking for banned drugs also found an illegal firearm, a judge heard today (Tuesday).

Swansea crown court heard how they uncovered a Brocock revolver which could have earned Simon Davies, aged 27, a minimum five year jail sentence.

Davies, of Gerald Road, admitted possessing the weapon and five grams of cannabis.

Brian Simpson, prosecuting, said the Brocock in question was such a highly powered air gun it was now classed as an illegal firearm.

He said pellets were loaded into containers and then inserted into the chambers of the revolver. The power came from a gas canister that had to be pumped up before the gun could be fired.

Mr Simpson said no-one was at home when the police called and so they left a note behind asking Mr Davies to contact them, which he did the following day.

Davies told them he had bought the gun at Carew Market and had intended using it for target shooting and hunting. But he could not afford the pumping device and had never used it.

Mr Simpson said Davies was "caught by the minimum sentence of five years unless there were exceptional circumstances."

James Hartson, the barrister representing Davies, said the firearm had never left his house and had never been used.

He said the case was exceptional and asked Judge Keith Thomas not to impose the minimum five years as laid down by Parliament.

Parliament had had in mind, he said, gangsters engaged in serious criminal activities and not someone who bought something at a market for £60 and "for fun."

Davies, he added, was not a gangster but a man who worked at a local poultry farm.

Judge Thomas said he accepted that the case was not what Parliament had in mind when passing the legislation that introduced the five year minimum jail sentence.

Davies was jailed for 12 months, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work for the community.

He was also told to pay £535 in prosecution costs and a £100 court surcharge.