LONDON -- Ten years after police found a handgun, machine-gun and drugs in his rented car, a Toronto man returned to London court to plead guilty and accept his prison punishment.

Greg Taylor, 37, has long left behind a life of drugs and guns he was entrenched in when London police searched the car in September 1999.

Yesterday, he was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to five charges after a decade of flying under the radar and putting his life together to become a productive member of society.

He thanked Ontario Court Justice Deborah Livingstone during his hearing and reminded her of the "positive changes to alter his life."

But hanging in his background was an outstanding arrest warrant for a troubling incident in northeast London.

On Sept. 14, 1999, an officer saw a Chrysler Intrepid being driven erratically in the Kipp's Lane area pull into a parking lot near an apartment building on Arbour Glen Cres.

The officers caught the car's two passengers, but Taylor, the driver, ran into the apartment building.

Inside the car, which was rented to Taylor, was a stolen TV. The remote control was found in the trunk along with a .25-calibre Colt semi-automatic pistol inside a nylon holster. Police also found a 9-millimetre machine-gun with a fully loaded 30-round clip.

Near the machine-gun was a tin box containing pills and a powdery substance -- later found to be methamphetamine -- and magic mushrooms worth almost $29,000.

Taylor's fingerprint was found on the handgun. But he was gone.

He returned to Toronto, then moved to Saskatchewan for five years to live with his brothers, who became RCMP officers.

He returned to Toronto where he found a job and had a family. He never changed his name and his lawyer, Peter Behr, surmised that Taylor's common name allowed him to carry on with his life without police interference.

But 18 months ago, Taylor was a passenger in a car that was pulled over for a routine traffic stop. Like everyone else, he gave his identification to the officer.

And this time he was arrested.

The gun charge from 1999 carried a mandatory minimum sentence of one year a decade ago.

Taylor got bail for 90 weeks without any problem and he explained to his children what was ahead of him.

Livingstone told Taylor the turnaround in his life was "remarkable" and had he been sentenced at the time of the incident, his prison term would have been very different.

"Your strength of character is obvious," Livingstone said. "You are a positive example for your children and others in the community that think (you can't escape) the life of guns and drugs."

Taylor was ordered to give a DNA sample and prohibited from having weapons for life.

Livingstone asked Taylor if there were programs he wanted her to recommend for him in prison.

"Anything to make it a positive, progressive thing," he said.

"Thank you again, your honour," he said.

jane.sims@sunmedia.ca