RETIRED gamekeeper Raymond Arthur Evans’ passion for historic guns landed him in hot water.

The 70-year-old hoarder, who had more than 20 weapons in a locked bedroom at his home, faced the prospect of a minimum five-year statutory prison sentence after he admitted he had a gun disguised as a walking stick.

Evans bought it legally in the 1960s but the law had changed and the Harper air cane was now a prohibited weapon.

Among his collection, the police – called in by social services as they sorted out his home before he moved to a residential home – found a shotgun, which he held without a certificate.

Evans received a two-year suspended prison sentence and he was fined £2,000.

Judge Niclas Parry, sitting at Mold Crown Court, said the cane gun offence was so serious it attracted a minimum sentence of five years.

The weapon disguised as a walking stick was in excellent condition and in perfect working order, he said.

Evans had historic mental health conditions following a head injury in a motorcycle accident, and his home was so cluttered that the local authority felt it had to intervene.

He was, the judge said, an unpredictable and eccentric individual, police had concern about his attitude to safety issues and in one bizarre incident he had invited them to shoot at one of his hands to prove a weapon was not loaded.

As a retired gamekeeper he had a great interest and extensive knowledge of the gun legislation and the judge said he was clearly aware of the changes that had been made and that he had the weapons illegally. While he had attempted to de-activate the shotgun it could easily have been brought back to working use.

The five-year term had to be imposed unless he found exceptional circumstances in order to deter others, Judge Parry explained.

Evans was a man unfit to look after himself, he was in a residential home, suffered serious illness and had lived far beyond the original prognosis. Any prison term would be extremely difficult for him.

The prosecution had fairly indicated that his motivation was “the pleasure of owning” the walking stick weapon. 

There was no suggestion that there was even a risk that it would be used as a weapon or for any criminal purpose.

In the circumstances, a five-year sentence would be disproportionate and arbitrary, he said.

Evans, now of the Wellfield Residential Home at Wood Lane, Hawarden, entered court with the aid of crutches.

He admitted possessing the air cartridge firearm in October last year, without the consent of the Secretary of State.

Evans admitted a further charge of possessing a hammer action double barrelled shotgun without a firearms certificate which he said he had for sentimental reasons because it was owned by his father.

Prosecuting barrister Karl Scholz said social services were removing clutter into a skip when they came across a collection of 18 air rifles, four air pistols, two BB guns and two crossbows.

Police were called in and they found the illegal cane gun in a box, together with a hand pump and ten air cartridges. It could easily have been converted to fire .22 ammunition.

He denied having a shotgun but it was found in two parts and an attempt had been made to hide them.

Interviewed, he clearly knew about the changes in the law and produced a receipt from the 1960s which showed that when he bought it, it was legal to possess it.

Evans described the bedroom as the gun room but said that because of his condition he had not been inside it for 20 years.

The prosecution accepted he had no ulterior motives and he would never have tried to sell it on. The chance that it would get into the public arena was limited, he said, unless, of course, there was a burglary.

Some days after the interview, staff at the nursing home called police when he was found to have a pistol in his room and a search revealed a box of a dozen shotgun cartridges in the boot of his car.

Oliver King, defending, said his client had been brought up on a farm, had guns since he was young, worked as a gamekeeper and conceded that he had a passion for his guns.

He was a hoarder who had the weapons for pleasure and for no other purpose.

Evans was a man of good character who was now in a home because he was no longer able to look after himself and he had got rid of all his weapons, including the legally held ones.

“His interest in antique guns and air rifles is a passion,” he said.