A 38-year-old man has been jailed for five years for carrying a gun after police stopped a car in South Mimms.

James Winson, from Mar-low in Buckinghamshire, was the passenger in a blue Mitsubishi Shogun when officers in an unmarked police car pulled it over in St Albans Road.

Officers then searched the car and found a colt 45 handgun and ammunition, St Albans Crown Court heard. Winson pleaded guilty to having a firearm in a public place, but the driver, from Worcestershire, was found not guilty of the same offence.

Detective Constable Noel Buckley, who led the investigation, said: “This conviction and sentence sends out a strong message to anyone who is caught in the county carrying any kind of firearm, that you will be brought to justice.”