An illiterate horse dealer found with an illegal box of ammunition has had his jail term slashed after judges heard that he couldn't read the packet they were in and thought they were blanks.

Police raided the caravan of Thomas Howard Beard, 24, of Longsite Road, Blackburn, on April 25 last year looking for drugs.

They didn't find any drugs, but turned up a high powered air rifle, a CS gas canister and a box of small CS gas cartridges.

Beard told the police that he didn't know any of the items were illegal and explained the cartridges had been left there by a friend who had told him they were blanks.

At Preston Crown Court on May 24 this year, Beard pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm without authority, possession of prohibited ammunition and possession of a prohibited weapon.

He was given the statutory minimum term as set down by Parliament for the ammunition offence of five years in jail.

Commenting on Beard's "naivety", Mr Justice Openshaw, sitting with Lord Justice Richards and Judge Martin Stephens QC at London's Criminal Appeal Court, today ruled that there were "exceptional circumstances" in which the minimum term could be waived.

The judges slashed Beard's sentence to two years.