A man has been given a suspended prison sentence after police discovered a stun gun hidden at his Huddersfield home.
Eleanor Fry prosecuting told Leeds Crown Court officers were executing a search warrant at Israr Ali Ditta’s address in Cawthorne Avenue, Fartown, Huddersfield on December 23, 2014 which had nothing to do with him.
But during their search they discovered the torch-shaped weapon on top of the wardrobe in his bedroom.
The weapon was then dismantled and made safe which meant it could not later be tested to see if it had been working at the time.
At the time Ditta said he believed it was simply a torch but Jeremy Hill-Baker representing him told the court there had come a time when he realised what it was.
He said at the time he was working as a builder and somebody lent him the torch. He accepted he had kept it even after he knew it was also a stun gun but had never taken it out in public.
“He never intended to use it and he never did use it.”
He said Ditta was now working as a tyre fitter, he helped look after his father who has cancer and supported his wife and child in Pakistan.
“He hopes it would be possible to suspend the sentence, to do otherwise would have serious consequences for him and his family.”
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Ditta, 33 admitted possessing a prohibited weapon and was given a nine month prison sentence suspended for 18 months with 150 hours unpaid work. He was also ordered to pay £800 costs.
Judge Geoffrey Marson QC said he accepted he had not used the stun gun. “But you had this for some time and you knew what it was and the serious aspect of it is you kept it.
“If someone else had obtained it on a burglary or any other way it could have been used to cause serious injury.”
