A taxi driver sparked a major security scare when he showed off a replica gun he found in his cab to friends.

Armed police swooped on Abadir Fikri, 24, after a traffic officer spotted him allegedly brandishing the plastic weapon on Brighton seafront.

Officers from the elite Special Operations Unit armed with pistols and semi-automatic carbines rushed to the scene and bundled him to the floor.

The Sussex police helicopter was scrambled to assist in the operation in March.

Ironically, the replica Fikri was seen with was a model of the handguns used by the Sussex force, made by Swiss manufacturer SIG Sauer.

Fikri, of Southwater Close, Brighton, was arrested and charged with possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.

But a jury at Lewes Crown Court took less than an hour to clear him after a three-day trial.

Traffic officer PC Nigel Cooper told the court how he was approached near the Grand Hotel by a member of the public one Sunday evening who reported seeing a man with a gun.

He went to investigate on his motorbike and said that he saw Fikri holding the gun with both hands and pointing it at balconies of flats in Embassy Court. He said: "As I was driving past he put me in his sights and moved the gun as I was moving along the road. He was following me round in an arc with his arms out.

"I considered it to be a very real firearm. It looked like a black military-style handgun."

Fikri and his friends got into three cars and drove off and PC Cooper called for back-up.

When Fikri's white jeep stopped in Church Road two armed response units in unmarked cars pounced.

Five armed officers in ski masks jumped from the cars and forced Fikri and his friends who had been in other cars behind to the floor.

Jeremy Gold, defending, said: "The high point of the prosecution case is that this was skylarking about.

"Why on earth should this defendant do what he is alleged to have done? He is a perfectly ordinary guy who is going out with his friends and family for the evening.

"Why would he dream of drawing attention to himself by pointing the gun at the police officer?"

He accused PC Cooper of "over-egging the pudding" in his evidence to justify the police response.

Fikri told the court had found the fake gun in his taxi while cleaning it out a few days earlier.

He said he had met up with friends and family outside his parents' flat in Embassy Court and had taken the weapon out of his pocket to show them.

It was a regular gathering for the group who arrived outside the flats in three separate cars. They were planning to go to Fikri's brother's house for the evening before they were pounced on.

He claimed he had seen the motorcycle policeman but did not think he was worried about the gun and was more concerned by the size of the group or the double-parking of vehicles.

Fikri eventually held up the gun to show it was a fake, he said. After leaving the scene, they noticed the policeman following and decided to stop to explain - but the armed officers swooped.

Several of Fikri's friends and family said he had neither held the gun as if to shoot it or pointed it at the passing police officer.

His sister-in-law Tracey Fikri, pregnant at the time, said: "He was showing us the gun that he said that he had found in the taxi and we were passing it about - it was just a toy gun, it wasn't a big deal.

"We were trying to show the policeman that it was just a play gun. When he followed us we stopped so we could ask him why he was still following us.

"First there was a helicopter and then suddenly there were cars coming out of nowhere. I felt dreadful that they had treated us that way."

Family in the public gallery gasped in delight when a relieved looking Fikri was cleared.