Sheffield judge warns cocaine user caught with firearms ammunition he is now a 'marked man'

Martin Thompson, aged 31, of Springbank Close, Carlton, Barnsley, was found to have cocaine valued at £400 in a cupboard at his home and a further search of a storage unit revealed firearms ammunition.

Anthony Dunne, prosecuting, said police executed a search warrant at the defendant’s former flat at Wombwell, Barnsley, where they discovered cocaine and a further search of a storage unit elsewhere revealed 11, .22mm rimfire ammunition, and 20, .223 Remington rifle cartridges.

Judge Roger Thomas QC told Thompson: “I find it difficult to understand why you have a lock-up and then choose to put this sort of stuff in it.”

Thompson told police had bought the cocaine for £380 and he did not share the drug with anyone else and he also claimed that the ammunition had been obtained from a rubbish removal job and he had not known if they were blanks or live shells.

The defendant, who has one previous conviction, pleaded guilty to possessing the class A drug cocaine and he also admitted possessing ammunition without a firearm certificate after the police raid on April 11, 2019.

Judge Thomas told Thompson he has to follow guidelines before he sentenced him to a two-year community order with 180 hours of unpaid work.

But he warned: “You need to be careful because you are a marked man now and if anything else happens someone else might take a more realistic view than I am able to take.”