A drug dealer caught with a stun gun disguised as a torch has been jailed for five years.

Gregory Place, 31, was arrested after police raided a house he was living at on Chester Street in Accrington found 102 cannabis ‘cuttings’ in a bedroom and a small quantity of crack cocaine, which was 97 per cent pure.

They also found the stun gun concealed in a chest of drawers.

Place’s partner wept in court as Recorder Andrew Nuttall told Place he could find “no exceptional circumstances” in his defence to warrant reducing the mandatory sentence of five years after admitting possessing a concealed weapon.

Paul Brookwell, prosecuting, told the court that police found the fully charged stun gun concealed but that no charger was found with the device.

He said that during the raid, officers also found drugs paraphernalia and £60 in cash and discovered that electricity had been diverted within the property.

Mr Brookwell told the court Place used the plants to supply his own drug addiction and for financial gain.

He said: “The cuttings were small plants which he hadn’t been growing for long at all but were significant because of a financial advantage to be gained.”

Place pleaded guilty to four other charges, producing cannabis, possessing cannabis with intent to supply, possessing crack cocaine and abstracting electricity.

Anthony Parkinson, defending, said Place had been a “gardener” for the plants for others.

He said: “It was low level drug dealing to friends and not for profit.”

Mr Parkinson told the court that Place had been keeping the stun gun to be collected by a friend at a later date.

“It is a serious weapon but not the most lethal in nature.

“It was not in view and not readily accessible.

“A friend of his who had brought the weapon to the property showed him what it was and then left it there.

“It was expected to be picked up again at a later stage.”

“He concedes what the item was. He concedes that he knew it was illegal.”

‘No evidence he had used weapon’ – defence

Recorder Andrew Nuttall told the court Place’s record did not indicate he was a man of violence.

However, he told the court that imposing the minimum five-year sentence would not be “arbitrary or disproportionate.”

Mr Nuttall said that it was a “prohibited weapon” which was capable of “incapacitating anybody”.

Mr Nuttall said: “In my judgement, I can’t view the issue of this firearm in isolation, it must be seen against a backdrop of what was happening at the address.

“It was given to you by a person to keep in your home, a home that was in effect a cannabis factory. Illegal activities went on in that house.

“The purpose of this legislation is to deter people and in my mind this is the prime example where this deterrent is entirely appropriate.

“I can find no exceptional circumstances in this case.”

The court heard that a weapons expert identified several buttons on the stun gun which had to be synchronised correctly to operate the device.

Anthony Parkinson, defending, said: “There was no charger, no evidence that the defendant had ever taken the weapon into a public place or used the weapon himself.”