A WAREHOUSEMAN was found with a loaded air rifle near water where a swan had recently been shot, Burnley magistrates heard.

Robert Hacking, 21, and a youth hid their weapons when spotted by a police officer and told him they had been rabbiting.

Hacking, of Comrie Crescent, Burnley, was fined £200, with £50 costs, after admitting possessing a loaded air rifle last September and failing to surrender.

The rifle was ordered to be forfeited.

Mrs Lesley Williams, prosecuting, told the court a plain clothes police officer saw Hacking on a canal towpath at Hapton, with a youth.

Both were carrying what the officer later discovered were air rifles, in the ready position and not covered or broken.

A short time later, the officer saw the defendant, asked where the weapon was and Hacking replied: 'What gun?' Hacking indicated to the youth to go and get the weapons after the officer said he had seen them earlier.

Hacking said the gun was loaded and discharged it into the canal. The officer pointed out a swan had recently been shot on that stretch of water, but the defendant said he had been rabbiting.

Graeme Tindall, defending, said Hacking was clearly in the area where he shouldn't have been.

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