A STASH of weapons was found buried in a forest when police followed suspects to the remote spot after a farm was raided and four guns stolen.

Officers tailed a Toyota Yaris from Northallerton, North Yorkshire, to a plantation in the area near Sandy Bank and watched the occupants dig up an air rifle.

The hatchback was stopped a short distance away and the Webley and Scott gun was found in the boot, Teesside Crown Court was told.

The woodland was searched and three more weapons – including a Beretta shotgun – taken in the burglary were found.

Graeme Gaston, prosecuting, said the guns were wrapped in a jacket which linked them to convicted handler Raymond Carr, 42.

Carr, of Prospect View, Northallerton, admitted handling all four stolen guns and his passenger Julian Foster admitted handling the Webley and Scott.

Foster, 40, of Bury Road, Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, also admitted two charges of witness intimidation relating to a separate case.

He was jailed for a total of 21 months after Judge Howard Crowson told him: “I can’t overlook the fact you have a very bad record.”

Carr received a 27-month sentence, and was told by the judge: “You have an unhappy record for offences of dishonesty. One of them was a shotgun.”

The court was told both men are heavily convicted and have served prison sentences for handling stolen property.

Carl Swift, for Carr, said he had received such things as fridgefreezers, angle-grinders, lottery tickets, aerosol spray cans and a crash helmet. “He is a man who handles stolen goods and is not a man who would ordinarily involve himself with firearms,” Mr Swift told Judge Crowson.

“He was going to sell them and that would be it. He knows that at the age of 42, he is getting too old to be appearing before the courts.”

Richard Bennett said that since his client Foster moved from North Yorkshire after the incidents in March last year, he has stayed out of trouble.

“It does show some signs that now, at the age of 40, he is beginning to come to terms with the fact he cannot carry on committing offences,” he said.

The court heard that the guns – worth a total of £1,680 – were taken during a raid at a farm in Northallerton between March 24 and 25, last year.

Mr Gaston said: “The monetary value is low, but it is an aggravating feature that lethal weapons are on the black market.”

The judge told Carr: “The necessary inference is that you are prepared to sell them if you have them.”