Wong Chun-yin, who said he bought the handgun and bullets from a fellow war-gamer for HK$25,000 in mid-2019, weeks before the outbreak of anti-government protests, pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm and ammunition without a permit.

Deputy High Court judge Amanda Woodcock highlighted the risk of the weapon falling into the wrong hands as she passed sentence.

She highlighted a DNA analysis of the pistol, which showed that at least four people had handled it before it was seized by police.

Woodcock set a starting point of eight years imprisonment, but reduced the term to five years and four months because of Wong’s early guilty plea.

The pair were cleared of involvement by the police inquiry, but police charged him with unlicensed possession of arms and ammunition seized from the couple’s flat in Pat Heung’s Sheung Tsuen village in the New Territories.

A prosecution summary said police discovered a P80 semi-automatic pistol loaded with 15 rounds of ammunition concealed under a sofa when the flat was searched on October 8, 2021.

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Two magazines, each loaded with 15 rounds, and a yellow box with 47 bullets inside were found under a computer desk in the defendant’s bedroom.

So was said to have approached Wong in 2019 and told him he could buy new pistols online for him.

He later bought the handgun and 92 rounds of ammunition on the dark web using bitcoin.

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Wong told police he had earlier turned down an offer from So to teach martial arts and knife-wielding skills to five people as he felt the group was dangerous.

Police on the same day also seized two air guns stored in the defendant’s previous home in Tai Po’s Fu Heng Estate.

Prosecutors agreed as part of a plea bargain not to pursue a separate charge of the same offence that involved the air guns.

Possession of unlicensed firearms and ammunition in Hong Kong is punishable by up to 14 years in jail.