A drug dealer who stashed hundreds of thousands of pounds and a deadly handgun in a holiday caravan in Brean has been jailed for 10 years.

Aaron Coltman made up to £2,000 a week from dealing cocaine between 2004 and 2013, Gloucester Crown Court heard this week, and saved much of the money.

That meant when police investigating suspected money laundering searched Coltman’s caravan at Southfield Park Farm, they found £280,000 stashed in three white crates, and a further £12,000 in a child’s bedroom.

They also discovered a Belgian-made .32 revolver wrapped in a red sock with 12 rounds of lead round-nose bullets.

Prosector Janine Wood said: “He admitted he had supplied cocaine since 2004 and the money in the caravan was the proceeds of that.

“He said he had stopped dealing in 2013 so he could change his life for the better. He would not name any other people involved.

“He said he was making £1.000-2,000 per week from the drug trade and he saved most of the money. He knew he had £280,000 in the crates because he had counted it.”

Police first began investigating Coltman after suspicions were raised over the source of money going into his motorcycle business in and the fact he did not appear to be paying full income tax.

The investigation at the business premises in Cheltenham yielded only financial documents and computers, but investigators hit the jackpot when they discovered Coltman had a mobile home in Brean.

Coltman insisted the gun was not his and he had never touched it. He claimed to be looking after it for someone he would not name.

However, he pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of cocaine over a nine-year period, possessing a firearm, possessing ammunition and possession of property which was the proceeds of crime: the £292,000.

Judge Jamie Tabor QC, sentenced him to a total of 10 years imprisonment; five years for the gun offence, five years consecutively for cocaine dealing, one year concurrent sentences for possessing ammunition and the proceeds of crime.