A 24-year-old man who fired at a school minibus with a toy handgun and later arrested by armed police was jailed for two years today.

Recorder Eric Elliot QC branded Gary Marshman's behaviour as 'irresponsible and feckless'', but said it was too serious an offence for anything other than a prison sentence.

Marshman, of Westcombe Court, Wyke, had been found guilty by a Bradford Crown Court jury at a trial earlier this month of possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.

The court heard today that Marshman had been diagnosed as suffering from a personality disorder, but any kind of hospital order had been ruled out after a psychiatric assessment.

The jury heard how Marshman was seen aiming what turned out to be a toy handgun at motorists as he walked from his flat to his mother's home in Buttershaw Drive last July.

At one stage he even fired a plastic pellet at the driver's window of a passing school minibus.

Police officers had to warn members of the public about the presence of a suspected gunman on the streets and Marshman was detained after he was challenged by a armed officers.

During today's brief hearing Marshman's barrister Gerald Hendron submitted that his client should not be classed as a dangerous offender who posed a significant risk of serious harm.

He pointed out that the plastic pellets fired by the handgun were light and only two or three millimetres in diameter.

'They were extremely small and light,'' said Mr Hendron.

'They are not of sufficient size to have caused any significant serious harm to anyone.'' Recorder Elliott said Marshman had put people in fear by his actions that day and it must have been particularly frightening for those on the school bus.