TWO men whose tyre on their speeding car was shot out by police have been jailed for a total of 11 years after admitting possessing a gun.

Oxford Crown Court heard officers from the Metropolitan Police and the Serious Organised Crime Agency shot at the tyres of Sukhjinder Virdee and Rajinder Bassi's silver Audi to bring it to a halt in London Road, Headington, last October.

Alex Durran, prosecuting, said police followed the Audi through Oxford from Cowley Road to Headington as part of a pre-planned surveillance operation.

She said Virdee fled the vehicle when it entered Northfield Road - a dead end - and ran off down an alleyway with a black rucksack.

He was surrounded by police and a a black and silver Smith and Wesson 9mm self-loading pistol was found in the bag.

Bassi, of Wolverhampton Road, East Wolverhampton, then drove the Audi along London Road before police stopped it by using what is called a hatton round, she added.

A hatton round is not a conventional bullet but a weapon designed to deflate the tyres of a vehice being chased by police.

She said: "Police had drawn their weapons and made themselves known as armed police.

"Mr Bassi later said it had followed on from a shooting in Southall and he had got the gun from a man in Oxford and was taking it back to London."

Judge David Morton Jack said the defendants were vague about what they were planning to do with the pistol.

But he added: "The only assumption this court can make is that both of them must have known perfectly well that the gun was intended for use in serious crime."

Virdee, 38, and Bassi, 30, both admitted possessing the pistol.

Virdee, of Finsborough Road, Earls Court, also admitted possessing 15 rounds of ammunition.

Judge Morton Jack jailed Virdee for five years and Bassi, who was on licence at the time for a similar offence, for six years.