A gardener conned his way into the home of a vulnerable pensioner - and then made off with one of his lethal shotguns, a court heard.

After committing the distraction burglary Miles Cash disposed of the weapon in mysterious circumstances, and it has never been found.

He turned up at the 79-year-old victim’s home in The Leas, Minster, on April 19 and declared: “I have come about the gun.”

Prosecutor Martin Yale said when the pensioner claimed not to know what Cash was talking about, he added: “The gun I left £200 for when I done your garden. I was the one who done your garden.”

The victim, who has memory problems having suffered two brain tumours, said he did not recall him.

Cash, 21, replied: “Well, you are getting old. You probably forgot. When I done your garden I left £200 for the gun.”

The pensioner said it was worth more than that. Cash asked to see it and the shotgun was taken from a locked cabinet in a bedroom.

“The defendant was standing by him,” Mr Yale told Maidstone Crown Court. “Mr Cash said: ‘That’s the one.’ He wrapped it in a blanket and said: ‘I will just go and get my shotgun certificate from my van.’”

But the married father, of The Meadows, Headcorn, went downstairs and drove off with it.

Mr Yale said the victim had placed adverts for the guns in sporting magazines and was certain he would not have taken £200 for the weapon as it was worth twice as much.

Cash, who has six previous court appearances for 18 offences, was arrested on June 7 after he was spotted at The White Rabbit pub in Maidstone.

"This is extremely serious offending... The fact is the gun was inherently dangerous. It has not been found" - Judge Julian Smith

He was drunk. He told officers he had cocaine and cannabis in his pocket.

Cash was jailed for three years after admitting burglary, possessing a shotgun without a firearms certificate and possessing drugs.

Judge Julian Smith told him: “It is clear you knew about his firearm. You certainly had been there before. There was no such conversation, in my judgement, about agreeing the sale of the gun.

“You obtained unlawfully and dishonestly the firearm for your own purpose. It was an unusual item and you chose to steal it. There was a degree of planning.

“This is extremely serious offending. It is submitted it was not sinister or nefarious. The fact is the gun was inherently dangerous. It has not been found.”

The judge added: “It is manipulative and exploitative.”

Cash wept as he was sentenced to three years for the burglary and 18 months for the firearm offence, to run concurrently.