Sean Hayden, aged 24, has been handed a one-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence. Hayden aimed a blank-firing starting pistol at a driver on the M42 near Redditch, Worcestershire in May last year. The victim alerted police and followed the car occupied by Hayden until it was stopped by armed police officers who found a starter pistol loaded with blanks in the glove box. During interview, Hayden claimed that he used the weapon to scare away sheep that came into his garden because he lived in a rural area. He admitted to firing the gun in the car in which he had been travelling in order to scare a young woman in the back but denied pointing it at another car.