Man given five-year sentence for firearm offences

Ryan Molloy was sentenced to five years in a young offender institution

A 20-year-old man has been given a five-year sentence for firearm offences.

Ryan Molloy, of Stamford Close in Swindon, Wiltshire, admitted possession of a prohibited weapon and possession of ammunition for a firearm without a certificate.

He pleaded guilty to the charges on 8 March and was sentenced at Swindon Crown Court on 7 August.

Molloy will serve the sentence in a young offender institution and was also ordered to pay a £228 surcharge. The firearm and cartridges will be destroyed.

He was charged after police carried out a warrant at a property on Edington Close in Swindon when officers saw three men running away.

A bag containing a firearm was reported to have been dumped in a neighbour's garden and tests showed Molloy's fingerprints on the weapon.

Det Con Anna McCormack, of Wiltshire Police, said: "A bag containing a firearm was left in a residential garden where anyone could have found it.

"They often end up in the hands of organised criminals, who use them to inflict serious violence and instil fear.

"I am pleased to have removed one from our streets before it was used to fatally or seriously injure someone."