A FORMER soldier has been caught with a secret cache of live ammunition hidden in his Greenock home.
Ministry of Defence police swooped on Craig Lymburn's flat with a search warrant and uncovered an array of bullets — including machine gun and rifle rounds.
Lymburn, 31 — an ex 5 Scots Regiment squaddie — had the ammo stashed beneath his bed at the property on Inverkip Road.
He has pleaded guilty at the sheriff court to an indictment charge of possession of the rounds without holding a valid firearms certificate.
Prosecutor Mark Nicol told the court that MoD police had initially gone to the flat with regard to 'an unrelated matter'.
Lymburn was charged separately with with stealing ammunition, body armour, a rocket hand-fired illumination device, a grenade and a British Army ID card from Howe Barracks, Canterbury, in 2013.
His not guilty plea to this allegation was accepted by the Crown.
He admitted a charge of unlawful possession of a total of 35 ammunition rounds between May 2013 and August 2019 at his Inverkip Road home.
Among the items found during the raid were 31 5.56mm live rounds, two 5.56mm blanks, a 7.62mm machine gun bullet and one 12 bore shotgun round.
Fiscal depute Mr Nicol said: "Officers went to the property to execute the warrant.
"The accused arrived at the flat and he was arrested and taken to Greenock police office.
"The items were found underneath his bed."
Sheriff Joseph Hughes deferred sentence on Lymburn, now of Westmorland Road, Larkfield, until March 2 for a background report and electronic tagging assessment to be carried out.
Lymburn's lawyer reserved his plea in mitigation on behalf of his client until then.
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