A MAN who brought terror to the streets of Blackburn by producing a handgun in five separate incidents has been jailed.

Pawel Szymczak brandished the firearm as a joke and as he did so, asked people, "Are you scared?"

The weapon was a fake gun that had the appearance of a biretta.

As a result of his behaviour, a police armed response unit was sent to the Garden Street area of the town where the Polish man ended up tasered, having failed to comply with a request to stand still.

The 30-year-old defendant, of Irving Close, Blackburn was given a sentence of 16 months jail by a judge at Preston Crown Court, having admitted offences of having a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and also possessing cannabis.

The offences took place near the end of last October when Szymczak took an air pistol belonging to his flat mate, without his permission. The firearm was not loaded.

Mr Craig Cleminson, prosecuting, said the defendant had earlier gone home with a female companion. He seemed to be behaving oddly and his flat mate tried to stop him taking his air pistol, but was unable to.

The court heard that at around 4pm on October 29 a man and his 17-year-old cousin were in Redlam when Szymczak approached them and pointed the handgun at them before walking away, turning round and doing the same thing again.

The same man was unfortunate to be near Garden Street about an hour and a half later when he came across the defendant again. Once more, the weapon was pointed at him.

Mr Cleminson told the court "He was terrified he was going to be shot and started to quickly walk away.

"The defendant shouted something and followed him. The man continued to run away, in his words, as fast as he could.

"He was shocked and scared and had genuinely felt that the defendant was going to shoot him".

That same afternoon Szymczak pointed the fake gun towards the chest of a security guard at Tesco's in Bank Top, staff at Corals bookmakers in Bank Top and a grocery store, also in Bank Top.

Miss Kath Johnson, defending, said a chronic lack of understanding had led to the firearm offence being committed.

"It was a stupid joke that got very seriously out of hand.

"No specific threats were ever made, at any time, to anybody. Of course, the sight of the gun would have terrified anybody and did terrify various people to whom it was shown.”