'Snakes' gun man freed from jail

Andrew Richardson's health has become fragile, the court heard

A businessman jailed for three years for keeping a revolver he bought to fight off rattlesnakes while living in the USA has been freed on appeal.

Andrew Richardson, 49, of Wymondham, Norfolk, was jailed at Norwich Crown Court in March after he admitted having a pistol and ammunition.

His lawyers said he had had heart bypass surgery and the prison diet heightened his chance of a stroke.

Appeal Court judges reduced his term to 16 months, allowing for his release.

'Gun for protection'

The court heard Richardson kept the gun in a Norwich storage unit, but it was discovered when he failed to pay his storage fees and his possessions were put up for auction.

Richardson, of Norwich Road, Wymondham, told police he had all but forgotten about the weapon, which he acquired while working in Nebraska, USA in the 1980s.

The state is infamous for its rattlesnakes - one of which had already bitten Richardson - and his colleagues had recommended that he buy a gun for protection, the court heard.

He brought the gun with him when he moved back to England in the 1990s.

Mr Justice Owen, sitting with Lord Justice Scott Baker and Mr Justice Cranston, said Richardson had always had the gun's existence at the back of his mind, displaying a "foolish reluctance" to surrender it to police.

'Sausage and mash'

Richardson's barrister, Tom Allen, said his client had to undergo emergency heart bypass surgery in August, a condition which may well have been worsened by his incarceration.

He said Richardson's prison diet and lack of exercise were playing havoc with his fragile health and commented that "diet has proved a huge problem in prison".

Although Richardson had requested a particular heart disease-busting diet, it had not materialised, said the barrister, and he was condemned to a "diet of sausage and mash".

All this heightened the risk of a future stroke, he told the court.

Mr Justice Owen concluded that, in these "wholly exceptional circumstances", it was appropriate to reduce Richardson's sentence.