COMPUTER expert Colin Blackshaw was today starting two- and-a-half years behind bars after he was caught with a shotgun and ammunition near the scene of a suspected night-time antique shop break-in.

Blackshaw returned to the dock at York Crown Court nearly 15 years after his last appearance there - for kidnap.

It was the latest in a rollercoaster career that has included spells working as a professional computer expert for Age Concern and the Bradford and Bingley Building Society and a 12-year stint in jail.

Richard Scott, prosecuting, said police investigating a reported burglary at Bishopthorpe Antiques in Bishopthorpe Road, York, at 3.15am on March 25 found Blackshaw with another man nearby. In his car was a 12-bore double-barrelled shotgun with 101 cartridges - despite the fact the 37-year-old knew he was prohibited from having a gun because he had served more than three years in jail.

He told police he had found the gun by a canal in Doncaster and had kept it because "it felt really nice."

He had been passing through York on a heroin-buying trip. After he was released on bail, Doncaster police caught him on July 21 with an air pistol, a machete and rice flails in his car.

Blackshaw, of Duke Street, Doncaster, pleaded guilty to a firearms offence, two offences of carrying offensive weapons, breaching a conditional discharge for handling stolen goods and a car tax disc offence.

For Blackshaw, Edward Legard said he had managed to stay out of trouble for five years when he was a management consultant in London.

His clients as a computer expert included Age Concern and the Bradford and Bingley Building Society. But when he had financial problems and his long-term partner had two miscarriages, he had turned to heroin.

The weapons were not used in crime.

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