A man caught with a gun and drugs during a sting by armed Police has been jailed for five years and three months.

Michael Eversley, 29, of Pembroke, was told by Puisne Judge Charles-Etta Simmons that he'd committed a very serious crime when "gun crime is escalating to an alarming rate in Bermuda and society needs to be protected".

He was caught with a loaded Tallon T 200 nine millimetre pistol and 9.6 grams of cannabis in his car on May 30, 2008.

Prosecutor Cindy Clarke told Supreme Court yesterday that Police had information that a firearm was to be exchanged outside Continental Motors on Curving Avenue in Pembroke.

Armed officers were dispatched to the area.

Around 1 p.m. they saw Eversley sitting at the wheel of a white Kia Sportage car with another person in the passenger seat. A third man who was riding a motorcycle approached the car and spoke to Eversley, whose car then followed the motorcycle.

At this point, the armed officers stopped the car and detained Eversley. The pistol was later found wrapped in a bandanna between the front seats of the car. The bandanna had the defendant's DNA on it. The gun was loaded but it needed cleaning and was not in working order. The cannabis was also found in a bag.

Eversley pleaded guilty to gun and drug possession at a previous court appearance. He denied ammunition possession and that charge will lie on file.

The court heard from Detective Constable Rickson Wiltshire of the drug unit that Eversley is a born Bermudian who is single and has a four-year-old son.

He has one previous conviction dating back to 2005, for using offensive words.

Ms Clarke told the judge that the mandatory minimum sentence for possessing a gun is not less than ten years and not more than 15 years. The maximum for the cannabis possession is five years, and the law states the sentences must run consecutively.

However, Ms Clarke added that a recent Court of Appeal ruling means all sentences must be proportionate. That means the court is able to give less than the mandatory minimum if it's deemed to be disproportionate. In this case, she said, the prosecution believed that three to five years for the gun offence "would not be disproportionate in this case" with another three to 12 months for the drugs.

Defence lawyer Elizabeth Christopher argued that two years in prison plus a two to three year probation order would be more appropriate as "this is a young man of hitherto unblemished character who's come to the court and pleaded guilty".

She cited Eversley's previous good character and the fact that he has rejoined the Seventh Day Adventist Church the church of his childhood as mitigating factors. He's also working on obtaining his GED. Eversley told the judge: "I would like to apologise to the community and my family, and when I get released out of prison I'm going to be a better person."

The judge expressed surprise at the sentence lengths suggested by both the prosecution and defence. Handing him five years in jail for the gun possession plus three months to run after that for the drug possession, the judge said a "lengthy sentence of imprisonment" followed by probation is appropriate, given the current nature of society in Bermuda.

She observed that "the circumstances suggest the gun is an adjunct to a life of drug dealing" and also that "the risk of street justice is a clear and present danger to this society".

Eversley must complete a year of probation after his sentence with conditions including a 9.30 p.m. to 6.30 a.m. curfew for the first six months and drug testing. The time he's spent in custody since his arrest will be taken into account.

The man who was travelling as a passenger in the car, 29-year-old Marcus Bean from St. George's, has already been sentenced to three months' imprisonment after admitting to possessing an additional 3.33 grams of cannabis found in the car.