A drug dealer has been jailed for nine months after police found a gas-powered BB gun at his mum's house.

George "Dode" Buchanan was found guilty of the charge in March this year after a three-day trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

The jury heard that Buchanan, who has served sentences for attempted murder and drug offences, was arrested on November 24, 2016, on a warrant involving drugs.

He was taken to his mum's home in Craigmillar where a search was carried out.

Police found the gun, a replica of a 9mm Sig Sauer pistol, and a large quantity of ball bearings.

Buchanan told the police the gun was his, but at his trial he claimed it belonged to his brother.

The accused claimed he only said the gun was his to avoid upset to his elderly mum, who was in ill health and has since died.

Ian Buchanan, giving evidence, said the gun was his and he used it to shoot rats and pigeons.

In 1968, the Firearms Act made it an offence for anyone, who had served a jail sentence of three years or more, to be in possession of a firearm and ammunition.

In April 2011, Buchanan was jailed for five years and five months on drugs offences, before being freed in December 2013.

At the trial, Buchanan claimed he had never signed any papers in connection with the Firearms Act.

At the hearing on Friday his defence solicitor Nigel Beaumont told Sheriff Alistair Noble it was the practice the document should be signed on a prisoner's admission.

Buchanan, he said, was never given the document to sign on his admission, but was given "a large pile of documents to sign" on his release.

The gun, Mr Beaumont added, was of very low calibre, low power and not particularly capable of causing any harm.

He said: "He simply purchased it for recreational shooting."

Mr Beaumont said Buchanan had no court matters outstanding and suggested the matter could be settled by a community payback order.

Sheriff Noble told Buchanan that cases of this nature were relatively rare and given his extensive criminal record he had given no particular reason for his possession of the items.

He sentenced him to nine months imprisonment.