A drug dealer has been jailed after police watched him load his car with a shotgun at a petrol station near Wolverhampton.
Paul Hodkinson, 50, was travelling through Penkridge in an Audi with two different number plates when he was spotted by officers on August 31 last year.
He was tailed by the patrolling officers who then watched as he pulled into a petrol station on the A449 next to another car.
Someone from the second vehicle was seen putting something in the boot of Hodkinson's Audi before it made off, police said.
Officers followed and stopped the Audi in Cannock Road.
Inside the boot, they found a double-barrelled 20-bore shotgun which had been stolen during a burglary in Kidsgrove, Newcastle-under-Lyme, a number of years prior.
When Hodkinson was searched, cops found two snap bags of cocaine and cannabis.
Hodkinson, of Uttoxeter, handed officers more cocaine when he was in custody and a mugshot of him was taken with a bloody face.
Despite being bailed under strict conditions, officers came across Hodkinson again when he was driving on Market Street in Uttoxeter on October 16 last year.
He was searched and police found three snap bags of cocaine and £110 in cash. A snap bag of cannabis was also found in his car.
Scales, empty snap seal bags and traces of white powder from a bedroom were seized during a raid on an address in the area.
Hodkinson was charged with a number of offences.
He was sentenced to two years and eight months behind bars at Stafford Crown Court today, May 7, after he admitted possessing a firearm without a certificate, possession with intent to supply cocaine, and possession of cannabis.
Major and Organised Crime Superintendent Victoria Downing said: 'We have been able to take a potentially lethal firearm off our streets through good, proactive policing. I'm pleased that we were able to recover a dangerous firearm and illegal drugs in this stop, which has ultimately secured a prison sentence for the person responsible and helped us make our streets safer.'
