A dad who agreed to store bullets and cocaine for drug dealers to pay off a debt he owed them has been jailed.
Police found 25 bullets wrapped in a bandanna, and a knife, in a cupboard under stairs at Joshua Howard's ex-girlfriend's home in Royton, Oldham.
Two days later, in November 2018, the 27-year-old was arrested at a different address in Chadderton.
He was found there with cocaine worth more than £3,000.
A court heard Howard, a qualified chef with a young son, had 'acquired' a drugs debt and was 'put upon' to act as a 'custodian' of the ammunition and the drugs for those he owed.
He was said to have been taking cocaine every day at the time, but no longer uses drugs now.
Brian Berlyne, prosecuting at Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court, said Howard's partner at the time told him the relationship was over and he left her home, leaving the bullets and the knife behind.
She repeatedly told him to take them away and eventually called Greater Manchester Police.
Mr Berlyne said after analysis, the bullets were found to have been designed for an 'automatic firearm'.
Two days later, police went to the address in Chadderton.
The court heard officers found cocaine in a plastic bag in the back garden after it had fallen from a window ledge of a room Howard was in, then a smaller quantity of the drug inside his trousers on arrest.
Mr Berlyne said Howard was 'motivated by financial advantage' and was 'operating as a custodian'.
Howard, of Anchor Street, Oldham, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply cocaine at an earlier hearing, but he had denied a charge of possession of ammunition without a firearms certificate.
He changed his plea however to guilty on the second day of his trial in May.
It was one of the first trials to be held since the coronavirus lockdown was implemented.
Hunter Gray, Howard's counsel, said his client had been 'put upon by those who supplied him with drugs' and had been 'in debt'.
"He agreed to look after the drugs and ammunition," Mr Gray said, who added his client had been 'pressurised'.
"He was very much a custodian. He has expressed full responsibility and remorse for his actions. He did try to collect the ammunition on more than one occaision.
"He no longer uses cocaine.
"He has done everything that could be expected of him since this offence."
Judge John Potter said he couldn't suspend an immediate custodial sentence and Howard had brought 'very real danger' to the home of his former partner.
"Those involved in possession of Class A drugs with intent to supply and possession of ammunition involve themselves in serious offending," the judge said.
Howard was jailed for 27 months.
He will serve half that in custody and the rest on licence.
