Joshua Smith has been found not guilty of possessing a sawn-off shotgun linked to a gang in Bristol, Somerset. The judge directed the jury to return a not guilty verdict after Smith denied possessing the gun, that had previously been stolen from a theme park and found with his DNA on the hammers along with two handguns hidden behind bath panels. The guns were identified as having been used in gang rap video.

Warren Walker has been jailed for eight years for firing a shotgun during an attempted robbery of a convenience store in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire. Wearing a ski mask, he demanded money from the owner of the shop while holding a double-barrelled shotgun close to his face and stomach. When the victim went to hide behind a stand, Walker shot the gun at bottles above him which shattered and left the victim with cuts to his head. Walker fled without stealing anything, and deposited the gun for collection by a drug dealer to whom he owed money. He was later arrested but the weapon was never recovered.

Patrick Pugh and Daniel Davies have been have been jailed for a total of eight and a half year for threatening staff during a robbery at a store in Shropshire. They told employees they were armed with a gun and a knife and escaped with £100 in cash. Davies was already subject to the terms of a suspended prison sentence for affray at the time of the robbery, which was subsequently activated. Nathan McDonough was also given a 12-month community order, for encouraging or assisting the robbers in the commission of the offence.

Hiram Braithwaite, 55, has been jailed for seven years after he and an unidentified accomplice assaulted a man who they mistakenly believed was part of a rival drug gang, and he was found to have seven knives and a load revolver air pistol at his home in Islington, north London. The victim was blindfolded, tied up and threatened with a knife before his assailants realised they had attacked the wrong address and broke his mobile phone as they fled.

Henry Gaskin has been given a hospital order under the Mental Health Act, and been banned from driving for 12 months and until he takes an extended test, for shooting a bin man in the face at close range with a gas-powered imitation semi-automatic pistol and knocking a cyclist off his bike as he fled the scene in Halstead, Essex. Although the gun was not loaded, the force of the discharge injured the victim, and police recovered cannabis and a class B drug during the investigation. A psychiatric report showed that Gaskin was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the shooting.

Paul Duffy has been jailed for five years for illegally possessing a Webley 8 millimetre pistol, two rounds of live ammunition, CS gas spray and amphetamine at his home in Washington, Tyne and Wear. Police recovered the weapon after receiving information that Duffy may be holding the gun and bullets at the property as a form of payment for an outstanding drugs debt.

Staff have been threatened by a man suspected to have a gun during a robbery of a betting shop in Leicester. He pointed the weapon at the victims in front of customers and demanded cash before fleeing. No one was hurt.

A man who appeared to be armed with a gun assaulted an employee during an attempted robbery of a store in Rugby, Warwickshire. He threatened the worker with the weapon in a bag and hit her in the face, but was unable to open the till and escaped. The victim was treated in hospital for bruising and swelling around her eye.

A man has been robbed at gunpoint on a street in Luton, Bedfordshire. A group of three men set their Rottweiler on the victim as he was walking and pointed a gun at him, forcing him to hand over his iPod. The assailants fled on foot, leaving the victim shaken but uninjured.