A 28-YEAR-OLD man who had a stun gun in his room has been sentenced.

Mark Maisey was returning from a night out in Oxford when he found the weapon in the back of a taxi.

Neil Moore, prosecuting, told Oxford Crown yesterday that Maisey’s flatmate was arrested by police in relation to an assault and the flat was searched on October 22.

Officers entered Maisey’s room in the flat in Springfield Court, Carterton, and found the gun.

At a previous court hearing he admitted possession of a prohibited weapon.

Joanne Sear, defending, said: “He fully understands the seriousness with which this court views being in possession of a stun gun.”

Maisey, now of Thorney Leys, Witney, was ordered to do 80 hours’ unpaid work and pay £1,200 costs.

Recorder Simon Blackford added: “This is a serious offence. We live in a society where resorting to weapons to resolve disputes is all too common.

“It’s a feature of this case that there were no means of charging the weapon. I don’t think you wanted to possess a stun gun in the first place and I don’t think you wanted to have it in your possession particularly when you were found with it.

“It is because of these exceptional circumstances that I do not send you to prison.”