(Image: West Yorkshire Police)
A teenage drug dealer caught by police with a revolver summed up the moment in four words: “F*** ing hell, bad day.”
Mohammed Hayaat Khan is now beginning 54 months’ detention in a young offender institution.
Bradford Crown Court heard how Khan, now 18, was spotted by police near tower blocks on Radwell Drive at 11.45pm on December 1 last year.
When asked what he was doing, he said he was having a joint.
He was searched and found to have a 6mm Alfa-Proj Flaubert revolver with four chambered rounds, two of which were live.
He also had a plastic tub containing eight wraps of heroin and 17 wraps of crack cocaine with a street value of £250, plus £100 in cash.
A later search of his home on Bradford Road, Clayton, uncovered more ammunition, some of which had been modified, plus casings and a balaclava.
Prosecuting barrister Ian Howard told the court how, at the time of his arrest, Khan was on bail after previously being caught in September with a dagger, 19 wraps of crack worth £190, and £91 in cash.
Mr Howard said the revolver was classed as a prohibited weapon.
When searched by police and found with the pistol, Khan commented: “F*** ing hell, bad day.”
The court heard that Khan, who was 17 at the time of both offences, had one previous conviction for robbery and possession of an imitation firearm in which a delivery driver was held up at gunpoint and his vehicle stolen.
Mitigating, Shahid Rashid said Khan had involved himself in criminality having not had a stable family environment and that he considered such behaviour “the norm”.
He added that Khan said he had been “groomed” into such acts, and that if he was not able to get onto the right path his future would be “very bleak”.
He invited the court to step back and consider exceptional circumstances in his case.
Sentencing Khan, who appeared via video link from HMP Doncaster, Her Honour Judge Kirstie Watson said he had a significant operational and management role and was selling drugs on the street.
She said: “You have clearly been trusted sufficiently to be somebody who has been given weapons in order to facilitate that drug-dealing.
“I am satisfied that in the circumstances of this case there are no exceptional matters that would enable me to withdraw from the minimum term that I must impose.”
She handed Khan a total of 54 months’ detention – or four-and-a-half years – and ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the revolver, ammunition, dagger, drugs, and paraphernalia.
The cash seized was ordered to be confiscated.