A WOMAN caught with a deadly pump action shotgun hidden under her settee has today been jailed.

Officers found the Franchi SAPA-12 gun, capable of firing four rounds a second, when they searched Kirsty Laing's home on February 16.

The weapon had been wrapped in a duvet cover and stored inside a bin bag before being stashed under the sofa in her living room.

Laing, of Coquet Avenue, South Shields, told police she was keeping the weapon for someone else, who she refused to name, and had believed it was just an airgun.

She admitted possession of a prohibited weapon at an earlier hearing.

Prosecutor Neil Pallister told the court: "Officers executed a search warrant at 10a Coquet Avenue, the home address of the defendant.

"There they found underneath the settee in the living room of the address a bin bag wrapped up with tape.

"Inside the bin bag was a quilt cover and wrapped in the quilt cover was the shotgun."

Forensic examination of the weapon showed it was in working order and capable of being fired.

Judge John Evans jailed Laing, who has just one previous conviction for shoplifting, for 18 months.

THe judge told her: "Parliament has said very recently that people who are in possession of weapons of the kind you were in possession of should go to custody.

"The reason parliament has taken that view is because these weapons are capable of causing so much havoc."