From http://www.kentonline.co.uk, 25 June 2012, by Danny Boyle and Paul Hooper.

CANTERBURY CROWN COURT.

Pub landlord Michael Maguire jailed after drugs and stun gun disguised as mobile found.

The landlord of a Ramsgate pub has been jailed - after a drugs raid unearthed a disguised stun gun and a CS gas spray.

Police officers stormed past shocked drinkers in "Maguires" after a tip-off and arrested Michael Maguire.

Inside one of the bedrooms of his pub in King Street, officers discovered a variety of Class A and C drugs - including ecstasy and drugs known as superman, BZP and flower design.

But police also discovered more sinister weapons, including a stun gun disguised as a mobile telephone and a CS gas spray.

Maguire, 48, was found guilty of seven charges of possessing prohibited weapons and drugs by a jury at Canterbury Crown Court and jailed for 12 months. He had denied the offences.

His pub was formally the "Chatham Arms," "Koumbas Arms" and "Hamilton Tavern" before he took it over.

Officers also seized nearly £23,000 hidden under the bed – which will now be subject to a civil court case after it was revealed Maguire had made no tax returns for 2008 and 2009.

The jury heard Maguire was charged in May last year – and a week later his step-son, Terry Nichols, walked into a police station and claimed the weapons and drugs belonged to him.

But Alex Dite, prosecuting, said that was done in a bid to allow Maguire to keep his personal licence to run a pub.

"He wasn't telling the truth," he said. "This was obviously a put up job – a set-up whereby he would take the blame so that his step-father's licence to run a pub would be preserved."

Judge Adele Williams told Maguire: "The mischief of possessing the items kept in rooms above a pub where you were the licensee and which you ran was that they could very easily have fallen into the wrong hands."

She also ordered him to pay £2,200 prosecution costs and told him he had forfeited his personal licence to keep a pub in the future.

Two other people drinking in the pub were later charged with possessing illegal drugs and fined.

In September last year, Thanet Council revoked the pub's licence for anti-social behaviour.