A man who caused armed police to be deployed to Mirfield Train Station after he was witnessed apparently holding a shotgun has appeared in court.
Aiden Duffy was in fact wielding a baseball bat after being short-changed by his drug dealers.
Duffy, of Brackenhall Road, Sheepridge, pleaded guilty to possession of an offensive weapon in public.
He also admitted to possessing cannabis after police discovered bags of the drug together with the baseball bat inside his car.
Armed police descended on the station’s car park off Station Road at just after 6pm on April 13.
A taxi driver had dialled 999 after witnessing an altercation between Duffy and his two passengers with the 27-year-old apparently producing a shotgun.
Prosecutor Alex Bozman told Kirklees magistrates that the driver had brought the men from Brighouse to the station.
He said: “When they got there the passengers left the taxi and went into a Vauxhall Astra.
“They then fled the car and got back into the taxi.
“The Astra was reversed and blocked the path of the taxi.
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“Mr Duffy, the driver, then went to the car brandishing something which the taxi driver believed to be a firearm.
“This was not the case, it was a blue baseball bat and this was pointed in the direction of the taxi.”
The Huddersfield court heard that the taxi passengers then fled and Duffy got back into his car and drove off.
Because the cabbie reported seeing a firearm, firearms officers were deployed to the area and Duffy was found in nearby Newgate.
During a search of his vehicle the baseball bat, which Duffy claimed he had used for playing with his son, was found in the boot.
Police also discovered five bags of cannabis behind the front passenger seat and another bag of the class B drug in the centre console.
Sonia Kidd, mitigating, said that Duffy had arranged to meet the men for a drug transaction.
He handed over £50 for the cannabis but when he went to examine his purchase he found that they had left him with nothing.
Mrs Kidd said: “He was frustrated and angry.
“There was a baseball bar in the back of the car and he went to remonstrate with the males.”
Magistrates ordered a full report ahead of Duffy’s sentencing on June 6.
