Debts OAP put ‘bomb’ in bank as revenge for its threatening letters
A DEBT-RIDDEN OAP who planted a fake bomb with a ransom demand in his local bank has been jailed.
Reginald Esqulant, 74, carried out the “carefully orchestrated” plot to extort money from a branch of Santander in anger over demands for bills and mortgage arrears.
He owed more than £106,000 to the tax man and had received demands for VAT returns, business rates totalling £1,479, an accountant’s bill of £2,706 and a £700 final demand from a water company in the days leading up to the crime.
A mortgage payment of £2,196 on his home had also been declined shortly before he walked into the branch, handed over a ransom note and left behind the self-made fake device of two greengrocer’s crates covered in black bin bags and tape.
The married dad-of-three admitted the bomb hoax, but denied he wanted money from the branch. He told a court he was concerned about “threatening and vicious” letters and telephone calls from the bank.
But he said: “It never entered my head. Even now, I still don’t think I did anything illegal.”
After handing over the ransom note, in February, Esqulant left the branch. But staff alerted police, who evacuated the area for six hours and called in the army bomb squad
He was arrested the next day after police traced his movements, in Sevenoaks, Kent, on CCTV. At Maidstone crown court, judge David Griffith-Jones told him: “Your behaviour was malevolent, malicious and without excuse.”
Ex-pub landlord Esqulant, of nearby West Kingsdown was jailed for three years and four months.
Even now, I still don’t think I did anything illegal
REGINALD ESQULANT SPEAKING IN COURT
VICIOUS