A man who was caught delivering an antique musket from Clydebank to East Kilbride to pay off a drug debt has been jailed for two-and-a-half years.

Jay Haggerty was found in possession of the gun, a muzzle-loading musket  with a shortened barrel, on August 29, last year.

The 21-year-old said he was couriering the weapon to pay a drug dealer when the car he was in was stopped and searched by police after a tip-off.

At the High Court in Glasgow on Tuesday judge Lady Stacey told Haggerty: "This court has to take a very serious view of this.

"I'm sure you appreciate what devastation such firearms can cause and the alarm they cause to the public."

The court heard that Haggerty, from Clydebank, paid a friend £30 to drive him to East Kilbride and on the way asked her to stop for another man who got in the car after placing a black holdall in the boot.

They gave the driver a postcode and as they approached East Kilbride the second man called someone to advise they were five minutes away.

When the car was searched by police the gun was found along with a butterfly knife.

Haggerty asked the police to let his companions go, saying: "It's nothing to do with them, it's mine, let them go."

Prosecutor Michael Meehan said of the gun: "It was not a modern reproduction and was not in working order owing to a trigger fault.

"The barrel had been shortened to less than two feet.

"If kept as a curiosity or an ornament it may be considered an antique and may be freely possessed."

But this legal get-out did not apply to Haggerty because of his custodial record.

Mr Meehan added: ""The accused accepts it was not possessed as a curiosity or an ornament."

He pleaded guilty to two offences under the Firearms Act and a further charge of having a knife in a public place.

Haggerty has since been jailed for 12 months on a separate matter.

Defence counsel Lorraine Glancy said that Haggerty had had a troubled childhood and added: "He was approached and told he could pay off a drug debt."