A MAN who pulled a gun on a Bury barber after a visit to his shop has been jailed for five years.
Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard that Amur Zaraf had behaved in an “arrogant and senseless" way after getting into an argument.
Zaraf, aged 32, of Walmersley Road, was sentenced after pleading guilty to a charge of possessing a prohibited firearm.
The court heard how, on Saturday, September 21 last year, Zaraf took his two sons for haircuts at the King of Barbers shop on Kershaw Street in Bury.
But he became “upset” at something one of the barbers had said or done and left the shop with the children.
Michael Knowles, prosecuting, said he then returned at around 4pm and more words were exchanged between him and the barber. The two then left the shop and got into Zaraf’s car.
In what Judge John Potter described as an attempt at intimidation, Zaraf then produced a loaded handgun – believed to date from the early 1900s, but still in working order.
The two bullets inside the weapon were not compatible though and there was no attempt to fire it.
A customer, who followed them, saw the gun, grabbed it and threw it on the ground next to the car. The car then drove off at speed but the barber in the passenger seat was able to jump out.
The gun was recovered at the scene and Mr Knowles, said it “may have once been antique” and wasn’t in a good condition but it was capable of discharging live fire and so was illegal.
Zaraf stated that he had no idea it was a working gun and that he had no intention of firing it.
The court heard that Zaraf had previously been sentenced to 42 months in a young offender’s institution for robbery and possession of an imitation firearm in 2003.
Judge Potter described Zaraf’s actions with the gun as “arrogant and senseless”. He told Zaraf: “You view it as a stupid act, I view it as more sinister than that.”
He warned the defendant that he had a chance to change his life and become “law abiding” or risk spending “longer and longer” in prison in the future.
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