A man who was caught with a sawn-off shotgun stashed in his wardrobe told a judge he accidentally bought it from a car boot sale.

Leo Boseman also argued he owned live ammunition because he enjoys turning bullets into fetching necklaces.

In total two firearms were discovered when police raided the 45-year-old’s home in Freemen’s Way, Deal, in the afternoon of March 21 last year.

Boseman told a court the weapon was unearthed when he opened an army trunk of kit he bought at Tilmanstone Boot Fair.

But he decided to keep it rather than turn it into police “because I thought it was just an antique.”

“I opened the box and the shotgun was in there, there were twirls on it so I thought it came from the war and was old,” he told Judge Simon James.

“I didn’t know it was illegal because I thought it was an antique so I cleaned it up and put it under my bed – that’s the last I saw of it.

“I didn’t know it was a live shotgun I thought it was just an antique.”

The judge’s and counsels’ heads turned during Boseman’s evidence when a detective carried the three-foot live weapon into court.

“This doesn’t appear to have any of the swirls or engravings on it that you mentioned Mr Boseman,” remarked Judge James, on examining the evidence.

Weapon fanatic Boseman added he accidentally bought the live bullet at the same market when trying to buy blanks.

He claimed turning blanks into necklaces is a hobby of his.

And it was a “good job” the ammunition was seized because turning it into jewellery “could have blown my hand off,” Boseman told Canterbury Crown Court.

Indeed, Boseman described how out of the 100 blank bullets allegedly sold on a stall, he came away with the one live cartridge erroneously mixed into the dummies.

“There were 100 there and I bought four or five and it turned out one of them wasn’t a dummy.

“I had just put it in my bedside drawer to turn into a necklace and forgot about it,” he said.

Prosecuting barrister Pierce Power, who explained Boseman owned 35 legal weapons, branded him a “weapon fanatic” and “liar”.

The court heard the defendant owns a selection of swords and axes, with some mounted on his wall.

Mr Power asked Boseman: “So are you telling me it just so happened these two firearms happened to be in the same box you accidentally bought for £60?”

The court heard the defendant was also caught with an un-licensed high powered air rifle.

However he claimed it appeared in the same box as the sawn-off Spanish Nautica bolt action shotgun, and he believed it was legal.

Mitigating, William McBarnet said his client had a “troubled past”, adding the bullet was incompatible with both guns and neither weapon had been fired.

Boseman pleaded guilty to illegally possessing a sawn-off shotgun, having a .22 rifle cartridge and also a powerful air weapon without a license.

In a previous hearing he also admitted to possessing a quantity of cannabis but the Crown Prosecution Service asked for that charge "to be left on the file".

Judge James, who emphasied Boseman suffered poor cognitive functioning, sentenced him to 30 months.

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