A MAN has been jailed after he was caught carrying a sawn-off shotgun and a revolver during a police raid on a remote cannabis farm.

At Bolton Crown Court, Katherine Pierpoint, prosecuting, said that at around lunchtime on September 22 this year, officers responded to reports that a woman had been attacked by two dogs on farmland near Wigan.

Their enquiries took them to Southerns Fold Farm in Aspull where they came across a caravan which smelled strongly of cannabis, and a suspected stolen vehicle.

One man was arrested and more officers arrived when at around 2.30pm two men drove into the farm.

When asked what they were doing they said they were checking on the welfare of the dogs but a third man, later identified as Nicholas Hindle, was then spotted carrying a shopping bag which he told officers contained tools.

A struggle between 6ft 5in Hindle and the officers began during which CS gas had to be deployed.

The bag was found to contain a 12 bore sawn-off shotgun, eight cartridges, a silver revolver and two nine mm rounds, all of which were in working order. Hindle’s DNA was later found on the shotgun.

Ms Pierpoint added that Hindle, 28, of Siemans Street, Horwich, had been jailed for four years in 2016 for assisting an offender.

The charge related to the murder of Bolton man Darren McMinn, 48, by Candido Pereira.

Hindle had assisted Pereira in disposing of Mr McMinn’s body which had been wrapped in carpet and thrown into Yarrow Reservoir, near Rivington.

Jane Dagnall, defending, said Hindle, who pleaded guilty to four firearm offences, was “not bang at it straight after prison” as he had left custody in August 2018.

“He has spent some time in the community not committing further offences,” she said. “For whatever reason he got involved on this particular day.”

Sentencing Hindle to seven years and one month imprisonment, Judge Timothy Stead, said: “There is a willingness on your part to involve yourself closely with those who commit serious crimes.”