A glamour model is facing a jail sentence for committing gun and ammunition offences.

Sandy Hunter wept as she admitted two charges of intentionally assisting the commission of an offence involving her ex-boyfriend Spencer Tapper possessing a 9mm Parabellum self-loading pistol and possessing 50 bulleted cartridges.

The 33-year-old, of Horsebridge Close, Dagenham, Essex, entered the pleas today when she was due to stand trial accused of possessing a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life, possessing a prohibited firearm and possessing ammunition without a firearms certificate.

The prosecution offered no further evidence on those charges.

Judge Martin Huseyin said of Hunter: “Her bail will be continued but it is no indication of the type of sentence she will receive.”

Prosecutor Paul Valder said the maximum sentence was five years, but the term was not mandatory in her case.

Maidstone Crown Court heard police officers found the Croatian pistol in her bedroom during a raid in 2016 when she was living in a two-bedroom, two-storey house in Dagenham with her 10-year-old daughter.

The weapon was in a holdall inside a wardrobe full of shoeboxes. The gun magazine contained 15 rounds of ammunition. A further 26 loose cartridges were also found.

She denied any knowledge of the gun and said she had “a lot of enemies”.

But she admitted her involvement after a jury heard WhatsApp messages between her and Tapper.

Mr Valder said they were clear evidence of her knowledge of the gun and cartridges.

She called the gun “ting” in an exchange about it being dropped off and collected from her home.

In one message to Tapper, Hunter said she would kill another woman with his “ting”.

Tapper, Mahesh Chaitoo, 28, and Aymon Popo, 33, were involved in collecting and transporting a Colt Government Model pistol and 50 bullets in two cars from Thanet to Essex.

They had travelled from Ramsgate and were arrested on the M2 motorway between Faversham and Sittingbourne on February 19 last year.

The car was pursued by up to eight vehicles containing armed officers from the Metropolitan Police’s specialist team tackling gang violence.

Tapper was said to be “the guiding hand”, who used Chaitoo to transfer the weapon. Popo was the conduit between the two.

Mr Valder said of the gun found at Hunter’s home: “It was loaded with ammunition when police arrived unannounced and searched the house. It was in plain sight because the wardrobe didn’t have any doors.”

She denied she had ever seen the holdall, gun or bullets.

“She said she had a lot of enemies but didn’t know anyone who would put a loaded firearm in her home,” said Mr Valder.

Tapper, she said, had visited her a few days before the raid and they had slept together.

Several messages exchanged during a lengthy chat on October 19 were about arrangements to drop off the gun at her home, where it would be left and then collected.

When Tapper suggested sending a woman to collect it, she replied: “I will kill her. I swear to you. With your ting and rub your print on it.”

Tapper warned Hunter he would “smash her head in” and added: “If you lose it, prepare to lose your dogs.”

Tapper, 37, of School Road, Dagenham, admitted possessing a prohibited firearm - the same pistol - and possessing ammunition without a firearms certificate.

He had denied conspiracy to possess a firearm, a Colt Government Model self-loading pistol, and ammunition - 50 cartridges - with intent to endanger life, conspiracy to possess a prohibited firearm, conspiracy to possess ammunition without a firearms certificate, possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life and possessing ammunition with intent to endanger life.

Those charges will be left on file at the sentencing hearing next Thursday, February 8.

Popo, of Highfield Road, Romford, Essex, and Chaitoo, of Beresford Road, Southend, Essex, both admitted possessing a prohibited firearm on February 19 last year.

Popo also admitted possessing ammunition without a firearms certificate.