Jailed for taking bullets on jet

A former airport security officer who sparked an alert when he f lew into London carrying banned dumdum bullets in his jacket was jailed for nine months today.

Wassila Alwasila, 45, had already passed through stringent checks at Washington's Dulles airport when the bullets were spotted on a scanner at Heathrow.

Staff initially thought they might be batteries until one of them decided to take a closer look and found five live rounds, two of which had been adapted to expand on impact.

The Sudanese national, who has spent the past few years in America, told Southwark Crown Court that the jacket had been given to him by his brother shortly before he boarded the flight on 14 January, and the first he knew about the ammunition was when he was detained.

However he was convicted of possessing prohibited ammunition - the dumdums - possessing three further bullets without a firearms certificate and having various types of ammunition on him without lawful authority or reasonable excuse during the flight.

Judge Christopher Hardy told Alwasila: "With the worldwide concern in regard to international terrorism and particularly the possession of potentially dangerous items on aircraft, the courts must treat such offences extremely seriously."

Although inquiries showed Alwasila had no links with terrorism, "even ordinary airline passengers" found in possession of such items still had to be dealt with severely.