Bang - and the case is gone.

Hilarious story - at least to an outsider - of a hundred armed police surrounding a house in Stoke-on-Trent only to find the "armed" man they had been told was there was in fact holding a spray bottle of Cillit Bang. That would have just been a funny story, but what turned the whole business into a farce was the police's decision then to charge the man with possession of an imitation firearm!  The case even got as far as Crown Court before the prosecution saw sense and decided not to offer any evidence.  No criticism of the police's handling of the original incident - they had to act on the basis of the information they were given - but which idiot decided to charge him with the imitation firearm offence?  Can't help feeling this was a case of the police being embarrassed and being determined to charge him with something to justify the manpower and expence involved.