A courier who was caught in Maida Vale ferrying loaded sub-machine guns across the capital for gangsters has been jailed for eight years.

Nathan Marshall, 25, was caught red-handed by police in the back of a taxi with a Tokarev submachine gun in his lap loaded with 23 rounds of live bullets.

He had been paid £600 to deliver the weapon, which was wrapped in a Sainsbury’s bag, to an address in northwest London in September 2013, the Old Bailey heard.

Police found photos on his iPhone of Marshall posing with a handgun which was linked to a cache of weapons found in a garden in Harlesden around a month earlier.

Officers seized a Mac 10 submachine gun and American revolver, both loaded, stashed in holdalls at the address.

Stuart Stevens, defending, said Marshall was ‘stupid’ and had ruined his own life.

“For £600 he stands to be sentenced, he has wasted his 25-year-old life,” he added.

“How stupid to waste your life taking a risk doing serious matters like these for a paltry payment of £600.

“He is a young man who either has to learn his lesson now or never.”

Sentencing Marshall, from Balham, south London, judge Anthony Morris said: “It has been stated time and again by the courts that the unlawful possession of firearms is a grave danger to society.

“They are used to take lives or in the commission of serious crimes.’

He added: “You acted as a courier in the transportation of these firearms for others who no doubt were going to use them to carry out serious crimes.”

Marshall was convicted of three counts of possession of prohibited firearms and three charges of possession of ammunition without authority.