A CAR salesman found with a handgun and around £385,000 of “very pure” cocaine said he was only acting as a “custodian” for the stash.

But Umair Khan, of Nye Bevan Close, Oxford, admitted one count of possessing the Class A drug with intent to supply and three counts of having a banned firearm, ammunition and a silencer, and was jailed for five years.

Nick Doherty, prosecuting, said the 20-year-old was arrested sitting in a car outside a block of flats in Whitmore Reans, Wolverhampton, on January 22 this year.

He said local officers watching the tower block at around 7pm noticed a man walking towards Khan’s Vauxhall Insignia with a blue carrier bag, which he left with the defendant.

The barrister told Recorder Simon Blackford that the officers decided to search the vehicle and found that the bag contained £12,880 in cash.

Mr Doherty said officers from Thames Valley Police then visited Khan’s home, where he lived with his parents, the following day.

There they found a further £7,000 in cash, a money-counting machine and body armour in his bedroom, along with keys to a Citroen car, the barrister said.

He added that during a search of the vehicle, which was parked outside, they discovered 2.5kg of cocaine which had a purity of around 60 to 70 per cent – the average purity for street cocaine is around 25 per cent.

Also in the car, Mr Doherty said, was a 9mm Baikal pistol, a silencer for the gun and 20 rounds of 9mm ammunition.

The barrister added that Khan had no similar previous convictions.

Recorder Blackford accepted the defendant’s excuse that he had only been acting as a “custodian” for the drugs and weapons.

But he added that there was no way of avoiding the five-year mandatory minimum sentence for possessing a firearm.

He sentenced Khan, a used car salesman, to five years for possessing the firearm and fire years for possessing the drugs, to run at the same time.

Investigating officer DC Simon Hannam said he was please that Khan had received a custodial sentence.

Speaking after the hearing at Oxford Crown Court on Tuesday, he said: “The sentence of Mr Khan comes at the end of a lengthy complex investigation.

“Thames Valley Police, in co-operation with West Midlands Police and the Crown Prosecution Service, has successfully removed a significant amount of very pure Class A drugs from the streets as well as a fully functioning 9mm automatic pistol and silencer.

“These illegal items had the potential to cause serious harm to the public.

“The sentence passed following Mr Khan’s guilty plea will clearly act as a deterrent to all those involved in this kind of criminality.”