A man has been jailed for four years after calling the police and telling them that he had a loaded revolver.

Seamus Boyle, 27, of Albemarle Close in Grays, called Essex Police on November 7, 2016, from a payphone in Basildon town centre to tell them that he felt distressed and paranoid and was in possession of a firearm along with ammunition and that they must come down and confiscate it from him, stipulating that they would not be harmed.

With that, armed police rushed to the scene to arrest Mr Boyle.

He then pleaded guilty to being in possession of the firearm and the ammunition.

The court heard how only around 25 minutes prior to him calling the police, at roughly 10:10pm, Mr Boyle visited Basildon Police Station in an attempt to hand in the gun but it was closed.

He approached a police officer dressed in plain clothes who had finished her shift and asked her if the station was closed.

She replied that it was and that if he wanted to report a non-emergency crime he should call 101 or send the police an email, but she did not explicitly announce that she was a police officer.

He subsequently made the phone call in Basildon town centre that led to his arrest.

Mitigating Boyle was Jon Harrison, who told the court that Boyle had "obtained the gun for protection and believed that people were coming into his home" but that he later felt a "sense of danger" having it in the home around his family.

Mr Harrison also said that Boyle claimed he "obtained this firearm by magic and magic made him do what he did."

Boyle saw numerous psychiatrists who all assessed him as not suffering from an acute mental illness.

Sentencing was Judge David Owen-Jones who said that he agreed with the psychiatrists but accepted his "odd and bizarre behaviour" as a mitigating factor.

There was also a gun amnesty on at the time but Judge Owen-Jones did not factor this in.

He said: "There was a gun amnesty at the time but you can't rely upon this as you did not know about it and you bought the gun during the amnesty."

Boyle was sentenced to four years, which includes the 14 months he has spent in custody since his arrest.