When police searched a house in west Fife they discovered a magazine for a machine gun, which they were told had belonged to the Royal Marines.
James Bowe, 51, of Leighton Street, High Valleyfield, admitted that on October 28 2014 at his home he was in possession of prohibited ammunition, namely a magazine containing a bullet.
Depute fiscal Louise Ward told Dunfermline Sheriff Court that police had gone to search Bowe’s home in connection with another matter when the magazine was found in a bedroom.
Bowe had told officers: “It’s a magazine for a machine gun and it contains one bullet.”
He said it had come from a friend who had been in the Marines and that it had been in his possession for about ten years.
Defence solicitor Roshni Joshi said: “He had long forgotten about it. He says he is gutted not that he was caught but that it came to be in his possession at all.”
Sheriff Charles MacNair, after inspecting the magazine, told Bowe: “Possession of military ammunition, part of a military weapon, is not something to be taken lightly.
“There was no need to take it from your friend and no justification for you keeping it.”
He imposed a restriction of liberty order for six months and the magazine will be destroyed.