A GUNMAN who brought terror to a pub beer garden was jailed for three years yesterday.

Mark Harvey, 29, who had previously argued with his girlfriend, threatened people with the pistol after an off-duty police officer refused to give him a cigarette.

The officer summoned an armed response unit on his mobile phone, said Amanda Perry, prosecuting.

Harvey fled from The Kingfisher, in Hemlington, dumping the gun which turned out to be a loaded air pistol, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Harvey, of Edison Way, Hemlington, who had previous convictions for violence and disorder, including a four-year jail sentence for robbery with an imitation gun, pleaded guilty to possessing an imitation firearm on July 27 with intent to cause fear of violence, and the unrelated possession of heroin