Two men whose speeding car's tyre was shot out by police in Oxford have been jailed for a total of 11 years after admitting possessing a gun.
Oxford Crown Court heard on Friday that officers from the Metropolitan Police and the Serious Organised Crime Agency shot at the tyres of Sukhjinder Virdee and Rajinder Bassi's Audi to halt it in London Road, Headington, last October.
Alex Durran, prosecuting, said police followed the car through Oxford from Cowley Road to Headington, as part of a surveillance operation.
After the car was stopped, Virdee fled down an alleyway with a black rucksack.
He was surrounded by police, who found a Smith and Wesson 9mm pistol in the bag. Bassi, of Wolverhampton, West Midlands, drove along London Road before police shot out the tyres.
Virdee, 38, and Bassi, 30, both admitted charges of possessing the pistol. Virdee, of Earls Court, London, also admitted possessing 15 rounds of ammunition.
Judge David Morton Jack jailed Virdee for five years and Bassi, who was on licence from prison at the time, for six years.
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