A dawn raid at an address in Edgware Road led to two people being jailed for possessing a machine gun

The Mac 10 gun, which is sometimes knows as "spray and pray", was found down the back of a wardrobe in a flat on Gladtsone Parade, near Dollis Hill .

The gun was found in a rucksack, which also contained a self-loading pistol and 11 bullets, after a police raid at 6am on January 31.

Bobbie Gordon, aged 22, was arrested at the flat after evidence was found that linked her to that address. Later that day police arrested a 32-year-old man, Sasha Langley, of Anglian Close, Watford.

The Mac 10 is also known as the "spray and pray"

When specialist forensics officers examined the Mac 10 machine pistol, they found it had been tampered with to disable a selector switch which converted the pistol from firing rounds semi-automatically to automatically.

In automatic weapons, the gun will keep reloading the barrel and firing rounds as long as the trigger is pulled, while in semi-automatic weapons, the shooter has to pull the trigger to shoot each bullet.

Bobbie Gordon, 22 was jailed for four years

The Mac 10's switch did not work and the gun fired automatically no matter what position the switch was in. Fully automatic weapons are illegal in the UK, with even Metropolitan Police firearms officers not carrying automatic weapons.

Gordon and Langley were both charged with two counts of possession of a prohibited weapon and two counts of possessing ammunition without a certificate.

The machine gun's were linked to Sasha and he was given eight and a half years in jail

Langley pleaded guilty to all charges on June 25 at Harrow Crown Court , and Gordon pleaded guilty the following morning.

Gordon was sentenced to four years imprisonment at the court on Tuesday (July 5), while Langley was jailed for eight years and six months.

Detective Constable Neil Kember, of the Met’s Trident and Area Crime Command, said: “Two extremely dangerous guns have been taken off the streets of London as a result of this proactive investigation.

A self-loading pistol was also discovered, along with 26 rounds of ammunition

"Automatic guns pose a fatal risk to members of the public and Trident officers are working relentlessly to seize all illegal weapons.

“The significant prison sentences handed to these defendants should act as a warning to anyone who is in possession of an illegal gun or involved in the storage of them.

"Even if you have only been asked to look after the weapon, if it is found in your address you will be arrested and prosecuted.”