Mojataba Baharloui was found to be carrying £1,500, and drugs and the weapon were found in the house.

Mojataba Baharloui, 37, arrived after them and he was found to be carrying £1,500, and drugs and the weapon were found in the house.torch-gun was found at the man’s Hartlepool home when it was raided by police with a warrant to search for drugs, said prosecutor Anne Davies.Policed seized 253 Diazepam tablets, 11 foil wraps of cannabis resin and a small amount of amphetamines which were all for his personal use, Teesside Crown Court was told.The stun-gun was capable of discharging high-voltage charges.He maintained that the gun was a torch which he bought from a friend.
Rupert Doswell, defending, said: “He maintained that he originally bought the item as a torch for £20, and the fact that attracted him to it was that it was rechargable and could be plugged into a jack.”Baharloui had developed a drug habit four years ago following the deaths of his parents in Iran, and he took them to dull the pain of his loss.He lived with his partner and he helped out at her takeaway shop, the court heard.The Recorder of Middlesbrough Judge Peter Fox QC said it was an “exceptional case for firearms”.He said: “It was a firearm apparently with a difference, that you say and have always said, that you bought it as a torch, and from what I have heard I give you the benefit of the doubt.“I accept that your purpose was to use this thing as a torch, which it is capable of being used as such.”
Baharloui, of Queen’s Court, Hartlepool, was given a nine month jail sentence suspended for two years with supervision and 250 hours unpaid work after he pleaded guilty to possessing a prohibited weapon and Class B and C drugs on April 16.