A gun smuggler renewed his passport specifically to travel abroad through a Kent port to collect eight revolvers in his car.

Gerard Dagnall was stopped at the Port of Dover after returning from buying the deadly weapons in Belgium – claiming he thought they were antiques.

The 33-year-old alleged he was going to give some to a friend and sell the others but has now been jailed.

Dagnall, who is unemployed, told National Crime Agency (NCA) officers he bought the firearms for €3,400 – more than £2,800 – from a business in Holmbeek, just north of Brussels.

But he claimed the company would not ship them because the guns would be stopped during border checks.

Despite this, he renewed his passport to travel abroad and tried to bring them into the UK on July 15.

Officers also discovered an illegal, 3D-printed firearm during a search of his home but it was not a fully working model.

Dagnall, of Scarisbrick Drive in Walton, Liverpool, admitted importing the original lethal purpose firearms and possessing the 3D-printed firearm and was sentenced on Friday at Canterbury Crown Court.

He has now been locked up for eight years and three months in prison.

NCA operations manager Rachel Bramley said: “We work with partners at home and abroad to protect the public from the criminal use of firearms.

“Gun smuggling is an extremely serious offence and weapons of this type in criminal hands bring significant danger to our communities.

“Ignorance of the law is no defence.”