Loaded handgun found under bush leads to jail for teenage Northampton drug dealer

The youth, who was 17 when he played his part in the "sophisticated drugs operation", was sentenced at court for an "appalling" history of crime, including threatening an elderly man with a knife.

At Northampton Crown Court yesterday (June 28), he was told he had 28 days to pay back more than £12,500 he would have made over drug-dealing career - or face an added 18 months in jail.

Recorder Anupama Thompson QC, who sentenced him, said: "The level of offending here would be serious for an adult but for a youth of your age it's appalling."

The teenager was found guilty this week of an incident in 2016 when an elderly man, who was tired of seeing the boy and his gang dealing drugs outside his house, went out with his dog and told them to move on.

The 17-year-old responded by spitting in the man's face and "lunging" at him with an eight-inch knife.

He was arrested in 2017 after a member of the public, who was out gardening at the time, found a loaded handgun wrapped in two plastic bags under a bush.

Police found the teenager's fingerprints all over the gun and arrested him at his home, which was a "stone's throw" from where it was found.

Officers searched his room and found more than £8,000 in a plastic punnet, plus £238 of crack cocaine.

While in custody that night, he also headbutted an officer.

The court heard how the youth, who is now 18 but protected by a court order, has since been transferred to an adult prison - where his life of crime has been "brought home to him", and he now hopes to change his ways.

He pleaded guilty to six other offence and was jailed for five years and six months.