A TEENAGER caught in a police drug swoop was found to have an imitation gun hidden in his boxer shorts.

Ihtsham Zahoor claimed he found the weapon in bushes outside a shop, Worcester Crown Court heard.

He was one of three youths travelling in a Toyota in which was found eight bags of cannabis.

Sentencing Zahoor, aged 18, of Arthur Street, Redditch, to 15 months detention, Judge Michael Mott told him: "There is a great deal of understandable anxiety about young men with guns.

"You were caught red-handed with this weapon. It is not what you intended to do with it but what might have occurred if the situation had arisen."

Police who stopped the car on the Alvechurch Highway on September 11 could smell the cannabis, said Alex Warren, prosecuting.

The drugs were in the boot.

The handgun was found during a search at Redditch police station. It was capable of firing ball-bearings.

He claimed he took the gun home after finding it - but then kept it on him for fear of his family discovering it. He had a previous conviction for robbery last year.

Jabeen Akhtar, defending, said Zahoor did not show his friends the gun and had no intention of using it.