RESIDENTS on the Melksham street at the centre of a gun scare believe the law is failing to deal with the rising number of incidents involving replica ballbearing guns.

People in Somerset Crescent reacted with anger to news that 39-year-old father James Riley was handed a fine for the gun incident in their street in May.

Riley, of Coronation Road, brandished a fake BB gun as a row with a neighbouring family reached boiling point.

He pleaded guilty to affray at Swindon Crown Court and was given a £500 fine on Friday.

Police were initially criticised for failing to respond to the incident quickly enough and Insp Neil Bagnall launched an internal inquiry.

Residents are still not satisfied with the police response to their frantic 999 calls on May 4, and believe the law that has let them down.

One 38-year-old Somerset Crescent resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, said residents were terrified when they saw the replica pistol being waved in the air.

She said: "What is the point of reporting anything to police?

"This is disappointing. He was waving a gun around. Surely he should be taught a greater lesson.

"It doesn't seem to get the message across. It was a frightening experience for all of us.

"At the time we thought it was a real gun.

"A BB gun can do a lot of damage. It can kill. This result is not what we hoped for.

"The police have taken so long to look into it already it almost seems to have been forgotten."

Insp Bagnall said at the time of the investigation that police responded to the 999 calls as soon as they were coming in, plotting behind the scenes what action to take.

He said: "The incident was resolved peacefully.

"Two hours is not an unreasonable amount of time to plan, deploy and resolve the situation. The success of it is seen in the fact nobody was injured.

"We have to treat all armed incidents as genuine because we have no idea whether the weapon is real or not."