The partner of Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema has been given 40 hours community service for the illegal possession of a hand gun.

Film producer Robert Oey had taken the gun, a film prop which had been disabled, to his home, where it was found by the couple’s 15-year-old son.

The boy was picked up by police this summer after neighbours reported he and a friend were vandalising an abandoned houseboat. He threw the gun away when he ran off.

The case blew up when the Telegraaf newspaper reported on what it called ‘an armed break-in’ in August, a month after the event took place. Halsema then wrote an open letter defending her son but said that he had broken the law and had to face the consequences.

The boy has been referred to the juvenile petty crime unit Halt.