A SELF-CONFESSED ‘womble’ picked up a firearm he found in the street because he thought it was a harmless BB gun, a court heard.

Michael Harding, 33, of no fixed address, was arrested in London Road, Basildon, following a stop check by police who were looking for a knifeman, just after 11.40pm on October 6.

Harding is facing a mandatory prison sentence of up to five years after he admitted possession of a firearm at a hearing in January.

Judge John Lodge, at Basildon Crown Court, is presiding over an exceptional circumstances trial into whether the sentence should be reduced.

The court heard homeless Harding spotted a red drawstring bag on the pavement near the Barge pub, in High Road, Vange, and kicked it.

Noticing it was “heavy”, Harding looked inside and saw the handle of a gun, a t-shirt, gloves and an empty shotgun cartridge, which he thought was a Clipper lighter.

He put the bag inside his own black holdall with the intention of possibly selling it later. He was stopped by police five minutes later because he matched the description of a wanted man.

Harding was arrested and initially claimed he had not looked inside the bag. A Stanley knife was found in his possession at the police station but he was not charged and he is not alleged to have been the man police were looking for.

Mark Savage, mitigating, asked Harding whether he had ever been involved in selling items found on the street and asked him to describe ‘skipping.’

He said: “It’s where you go round and look for discarded items in skips. They call it wombling.”

Mr Harding denied knowing the gun was real and said if he had made it home he would have called police.

Cyrus Shroff, prosecuting, asked Harding why he picked up a bag that did not belong to him. Harding said: “Why not? It was heavy so I picked it up. It was nobody’s bag, it was just on the path.”

Harding said he was “quite glad” he decided to pick it up because “it could have gone in to the wrong hands.”

Judge Lodge said he was “incredibly suspicious” about Harding’s evidence. The trial continues.