A Screwfix customer services worker stashed two working guns in a shed at the company’s Folkestone store.

Jake Ridley later told police he had thought about fighting against so-called Islamic State – but had never made any plans.

The 20-year-old was quizzed by police if he had ever belonged to an extremist organisation – but denied it.

Today, Ridley, of Downs Road, Folkestone, was sent to a Young Offender’s Institution for two-and-a-half years after admitting five firearm charges.

Canterbury Crown Court heard that Screwfix bosses had no idea the weapons were being stored in a locked gun case in the company’s secured shed.

And Judge Heather Norton accepted that Ridley – described as an “obsessive, vulnerable and lonely person” – was suffering from Asperger's Syndrome.

Prosecutor James Ross told how Ridley had bought the decommissioned weapons – including a German-made 8mm bolt-action Mauser rifle and a 7.62 G3 Selective Fire Rifle for £500 each...and then “tinkered and re-activated” them.

Police seized the weapons after being called to the store and later an expert tested them – revealing both weapons were able to fire “potentially lethal live rounds”.

Ridley – who had been on his day off from his job in January during the police raid – was summoned to the store and arrested.

At his home, officers discovered he had a legal WW2 replica machine gun on a stand in his bedroom.

Mr Ross said he had also bought parts of weapons which were illegal to own.

The G3 had been adapted and was tested successfully with a “live” round.

Ridley told officers he had worked for Screwfix for 18 months as a customer services assistant but worked mainly in the warehouse.

He said he had stored the weapons in the shed after his family ordered him to take them away from his home a few weeks earlier.

“He told police he didn’t ask for permission to take them to the shed and didn’t tell anyone as he knew permission would be denied.

“He said he had not modified the weapons at Screwfix or anywhere else and had planned to sell them after Christmas, “ the prosecutor said.

Ridley denied being a member of any extremist political group but said he had once considered fighting against the so-called Islamic State but had taken no action.

Phil Rowley, defending, said psychiatrists had diagnosed Ridley as suffering from Asperger's Syndrome and in the past had become obsessed with street lights, electrical items and lately motor vehicles.

He said Ridley had just “played around” with the weapons before “tinkering” with them but had no intention of selling them as reactivated weapons.

Ridley had faced a minimum five year term for breaching the Firearms Act after admitting the charges – unless the court found there were “special” circumstances.

The judge told him he had ordered the weapons to be delivered at his home when he knew his parents would be out.

“That demonstrates you knew very well indeed that you should not have these items, your parents wouldn’t have approved and you wouldn’t have been give authority by your company.

“I have some difficulty in accepting you were only interested in how these weapons worked because you had the skill to alter them and you would have known the effects of tinkering with them.”

But she said she accepted he had no intention of using them for unlawful purposes.

“Whether you knew they were activated or not, had you sold these weapons, then activate weapons capable of discharging ammunition to lethal effect, would have got into the hands of others.”

A Spokesman for Screwfix said: ‘’As soon as we were aware of Jake Ridley’s involvement in criminal activity we alerted the police which lead to his termination of employment and criminal conviction.

"We have worked with the relevant authorities during their investigations.’’