Northampton bare-knuckle boxer caught with loaded revolver and over £2,000 of cocaine

Nathan "Too Slick" Leeson was arrested in May after a foot chase through residents' gardens off St James' Park Road, during which he dumped a brown chequered bag he was carrying.

Yesterday (July 5), Northampton Crown Court heard how when police recovered the bag, they found it held a stash of cocaine and a loaded 19th-Century French revolver covered in Leeson's fingerprints.

Leeson - who once told the Chronicle & Echo he was "the Prince Naseem Hamed of bare-knuckle boxing" - was seen fleeing from a moving white Mercedes during a police sting in May as they tried to arrest the driver.

But when he was arrested, officers found in possession of over 34 grams of cocaine with a street value of up to £2,910 and a loaded revolver.

Leeson's defence barrister told the court how his client had "stupidly" fallen into an addiction to drugs, and was carrying the drugs and the revolver as a form of payment to a dealer.

The court also heard from several of Leeson's friends and an employer who said he was "a kind, caring and giving man who had made a mistake", and he was now helping others in prison overcome with their addictions.

But Judge Mayo said: "You were no doubt promised drugs or cash [...] and were a trusted custodial of drugs and that weapon which was a lethal device."

Leeson was sentenced to five years in prison. The 19th Century revolver was ordered to be destroyed.