A Highland teacher who threatened family members with an axe has appeared in court for the second time in a week after he breached the Firearms Act.
Michael Close was found to have hundreds more bullets than permitted under the terms of his firearms certificate.
Police officers were sent to Close’s home in the Highlands to assess the suitability of his firearms certificate following the axe incident in the Forres area the day before.
The science teacher appeared in Elgin Sheriff Court last week and admitted brandishing an axe and threatening to kill members of his partner’s family after discovering they were due to make an unannounced visit.
Close, 60, complied with the firearms check, but when officers looked in the shotgun cabinet they found the additional rounds of ammunition.
Fiscal depute Karen Poke told Inverness Sheriff Court that the issue was discovered after Close’s firearms licence was highlighted following the Forres incident.
She said: “The background here was that on the evening of July 27 the accused was involved in an unrelated incident in the Forres area.
Certificate holder ‘highlighted’ after incident
“Following on from the incident the accused was highlighted as the holder of a firearms and shotgun certificate.”
Ms Poke said Close was visited the following day so that police could make enquiries as to the “suitability” of that certification.
“It was noted by police that he had an amount of ammunition in excess of what he was able to hold,” she said.
The court heard that officers found 1,170 .22 rounds – 270 more than the 900 allowed under the terms of the certificate.
Solicitor Erin Monaghan, for Close, told the court that her client was the holder of a PhD who had dedicated much of his life to cancer research.
“He is also a teacher of 23 years,” she said.
Ms Monaghan said Close had held a firearms certificate for a decade “without any incident whatsoever”.
She said the problem had arisen after the doctor had voluntarily reduced his ammunition allowance when he moved to the Highlands.
“Up until 2013 he had an allocation of 1500 .22 rounds,” she explained.
Dr Michael Close ‘didn’t try to hide’ excess ammunition
She said that Close, of Burnside Terrace, Strath, had discovered a “tiny” box of ammunition while clearing out his attic three weeks prior to the house call and had immediately moved them to the locked gun cabinet.
“He didn’t try to hide them,” Ms Monaghan said.
She told Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald the school teacher had a shooting trip planned and expected to use the excess ammunition within a short amount of time.
Outlining her client’s circumstances to the court, the defence agent said: “He is currently working as a high school teacher. He may not be working in the high school after the summer holidays.”
Handing down a financial penalty of £640 Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald said: “Dr Close, there is a reason there is a limit on the amount of ammunition.
“You were above the limit, you knew you were above the limit, you thought you weren’t going to get caught but you did.”
