Falmouth teenager had air gun in pocket (From Falmouth Packet)

Falmouth teenager had air gun in pocket

1:40pm Tuesday 5th March 2013 in News

A policewoman who suspected that a teenager in Falmouth had an automatic handgun on him reached towards his pocket and took it away, Truro magistrates have heard.

Alex Burgoyne, aged 19, of Trevaylor Road, Falmouth, had earlier been in the Trago Mills store, where he had asked if he could buy bullets for it.

The alarm was raised when an assistant saw a black item in his hand.

At Truro Magistrates’ Court he pleaded guilty to possessing an imitation firearm in a public place and using threatening behaviour.

Alison May, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said PC Michelle Thompson found defendant after the police had been alerted and saw him put his hand near his trouser pocket, where she could see what looked like an automatic gun sticking out.

“She reached for it and took it away,” said Ms May.

In the teenager’s pocket was found a bb magazine and an empty gas canister.

Burgoyne started swearing at passers-by, who were alarmed by his behaviour.

He told the police officer he had wanted to buy pellets for the airgun to shoot at targets in the garden at home.

He took the gun with him to check for the right size of pellet.

He had been drinking and was in breach of a drink banning order made by a court in November for a battery offence.

In January he was sent to prison for possessing a knife or blade in a public place and was released the day before this latest offence.

Paul Gallagher, his solicitor, said he had found the gun at his mother’s house and took it into town to get some pellets for it.

The court heard that there was no suggestion he was waving it around and what the assistant had seen at Trago had been the black magazine for it.

The gun had not been capable of being fired when it was found on him.

He had started swearing in the street because people were taking photographs of him and he was upset at being made a fool of.

Burgoyne was sent to prison for 12 weeks, with chairman Karen Tudor telling him: “This was completely irresponsible behaviour which was likely to frighten members of the public.”

An order was made for the gun to be forfeited and destroyed.