Pensioner terrorised group with fake gun

A GUN-TOTING pensioner terrified a group of young men when he waved an imitation pistol at them.

Canterbury Crown Court heard Alan Cripps, 73, wrecked his life’s unblemished record in Wingham in August.

The bearded, bespectacled retiree was arrested and charged by police and appeared in court on Monday, where he admitted an offence under the Firearms Act 1968.

He pleaded guilty to posses- sion of an imitation firearm, a blank-firing revolver, to cause Oliver Coleman to believe that unlawful violence would be used against.

Mr Coleman, who is 21, was with friends in a privately owned field behind Cripps’s cottage home in the village High Street on the night of Saturday, August 18.

They were leaving the area and driving towards the High Street when they saw a man standing on the pavement. The man walked over to the driver’s side of the car and held up a revolver, which he pointed directly at them and asked them to get out of the car.

The young men sped off in terror in their VW Golf and then heard the gun being fired behind them.

They identified the man they had seen as Cripps, and Mr Coleman told his father about what had happened.

Mr Coleman’s father called Cripps and asked him if he had pointed a gun at his son. Cripps replied that it was a replica.

The police were called and spoke to Cripps, whom they believed to be drunk.

Mr Coleman and his friends told officers that they had been terrified by Cripps’s behaviour.

Cripps’s barrister, Alex Haines, told the court that the incident stemmed from previous thefts of metal from behind Cripps’s house. Police firearms officers examined the gun and found that it fired blank caps.

Spokesman Jon Green said: “Under the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003, it is an arrestable offence to carry an imitation firearm in a public place, whether or not it is capable of discharging a shot or a bullet.

“Carrying an air weapon in public, loaded or not, is also an offence. The maximum penalty is six months imprisonment.”

Judge James O’Mahoney adjourned the case for the preparation of a pre-sentence report. Cripps is due to return to the court on October 15.