Raymond Warde rang the police to tip them off about the gun he had hidden in the toilets at the Orange Tree pub.

Warde, 59, claimed he was a police informer and had vital evidence about the weapon. Police searched the premises and recovered the gun.

He later claimed a £500 reward and passed £100 to two undercover detectives who he mistakenly believed to be corrupt. Unknown to him the incident had been taped by officers from the anti corruption squad CIB3.

Warde, 59, of Bracknell, Berkshire, and Geoffrey Brown, 45, of Sandhurst, Berkshire, both admitted two charges of corruption when they appeared at the Old Bailey last week.

The court heard that over the course of a year they had paid £800 in bribes to the two undercover detectives based at Twickenham police station.

The plot was hatched in September 1997 when Mr X, who can not be named for legal reasons, approached a senior detective proposing a corruption deal.

CIB3 were alerted and secretly taped a meeting where Warde asked if the officer would be interested in seizing a quantity of drugs which could then be sold on and the profits shared between the group.

Officers continued to monitor the group when they approached the two junior detectives at Twickenham.

They taped a clandestine meeting held at a Hampton Wick pub when Warde paid one of the detectives £100 to organise Mr X's move from Wandsworth to a low security prison after he was jailed for 42 months for robbery.

Brown told the detectives about a plot to burgle an electrical goods company in Camberley.

He said he had the keys to the premises and asked the officers to obtain the alarm code after promising to share the profits from the raid.

The burglary never took place and Brown later handed the keys to the police and collected a £1,000 reward which he shared with the officers.

Warde and Brown were arrested on March 4, 1999 and admitted charges of corruption.

Warde was given a 15-month jail sentence and Brown was given a six month term.

Both sentences were suspended for two years.