ARMED police were called to deal with a patient who had produced an imitation gun when he visited a psychiatrist for a consultation, York Crown Court heard.

The gun alert started when Marcus Jonathan Standen, 40, put the unloaded imitation firearm on the desk of Dr Susan Shaw, said Richard Gioserano, prosecuting.

"He said he liked it and it relaxed him," the barrister said.

Dr Shaw handed it back to Standen and continued the consultation.

But after he left, she spoke to his GP, and police and the armed response unit was called out.

Standen was arrested at his home, where he has a collection of imitation firearms and other weapons.

"This was a foolish rather than a wicked act on your part by producing that weapon which I accept could be lawfully purchased," said Judge Peter Baker QC.

"But showing it to anybody is likely to produce alarm and there was in this case an armed response. What could have happened, heaven knows."

Standen, of Jackson Street, The Groves, York, pleaded guilty to a public order offence and was conditionally discharged for 18 months. He had originally been charged with possessing a firearm with intent to make another fear violence, which he denied.

The gun was confiscated and the court heard that he will dispose of "other items" believed to be the weapons found at his home.

Mr Gioserano said Dr Shaw had a consultation with Standen at Bootham Park Hospital to assess the mental effect of a traffic accident on him.

Standen produced the gun and removed its magazine before putting it on the desk. He also showed newspaper clippings, claiming he was responsible for an incident at Clifton Ings that led to armed police being called out.

All the weapons found at his home were within the law.

For Standen, David Bradshaw said he realised that he had acted stupidly in showing the imitation gun in the way he did.

He was seeing his GP for the mental effects of the accident which had happened in 1999.

Updated: 11:04 Tuesday, March 05, 2002