A drug dealer who was arrested after he shot an airgun out of his window at a passing taxi has been jailed.

Police were called to Grebe Close in Abingdon on August 5 last year after Luke Alford drunkenly fired the ball-bearing gun at Saqlain Ahmed Shah from the window of his home.

When officers entered the property they found a quantity of cocaine.

Alford, 23, was unanimously convicted by jurors at Oxford Crown Court of possessing a Class A drug with intent to supply, following a trial in June.

He had already pleaded guilty to one count of possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.

Alford was sentenced by Judge Mary Jane Mowat on Thursday.

She told him: “To fire, albeit an imitation, gun – one that to everybody watching could well have been real – out of a house window in the street at a taxi with people around is just horrendous and insane.

“Then to deal in cocaine, even to a circle of friends and acquaintances, is an offence one cannot really escape a custodial sentence for. They are each offences for which on their own, it seems to me, could have get about three years in prison.

“I take into account what I’ve read about you (in pre-sentence reports) and your record and the fact this does seem to be a step up, but there’s been a bit of a progression through the cannabis dealing to the hard drugs.”

Alford, who has served 108 days on remand, was jailed for 40 months.