A dad who found a bag of bullets during a metal detecting trip was handed a suspended prison sentence for keeping them in his home.

Spencer Taylor, 25, of Firfield Road, Thundersley, admitted possessing 23 rounds of live ammunition when he appeared at Basildon Crown Court yesterday.

The court heard that Taylor discovered the bullets buried in woodland while he was out using his metal detector in March and then took them home to keep in his bedside table, instead of contacting the police.

Sasha Bailey, mitigating, said Taylor, a dad-of-one who has another baby on the way, “didn’t know” it was an offence to keep the bullets, which required a permission certificate.

She said: “On March 11, officers were called to the Daws Heath Road area of Benfleet. He was seen and approached by officers.

“He stated that in his bedside cabinet there were a couple of bullets that he found while he was using his metal detector.

“A search was undertaken and in his bedside drawer was indeed a bag containing 23 bullets.

“Taylor was arrested and he stated that about three weeks ago he had been using a metal detector when he found a carrier bagwith 23 bullets just below the surface of the ground.

“He was waiting for a friend to give him advice on what to do with the bullets and said he didn’t know it was an offence to have bullets.

“The bullets have been looked at by the expert who confirms they are 23 rounds of special ammunition and they are within the category of needing a certificate.”

The court heard that Taylor, who did not own a gun, did not contact police about his find because he was worried about the repercussions.

Sentencing, judge Samantha Leigh, said: “As soon as you saw the police you told them where the bullets were.

“They were upstairs in a bedside cabinet and there is no suggestion that they formed part of a larger stash or that they had been used.”

She handed him a six-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months.

She also ordered him to complete a thinking skills programme, to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work and to pay an £80 victim surcharge.