Scottish Daily Mail

Police raid family home after an internet prank

- By Jamie Beatson

POLICE swooped on a quiet rural street in the middle of the night after an online gamer pulled off an elaborate hoax on an internet friend.

Robert Barr sent a full turnout of emergency services in what has become known as a ‘swatting’ hoax to the £400,000 house teenager Jamie Sales shares with his family near Monifieth, Angus.

Barr claimed to 999 call handlers that he was Jamie Sales and that his father had attacked his mother – and was coming for him with a knife.

In reality, Barr was at his home 100 miles away in Elderslie, Renfrewshi­re, while most of the Sales family were sound asleep.

The term ‘swatting’ was coined by the FBI to describe hoax calls that trigger a high level turnout of SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) teams with powerful weapons.

Mr Sales, 18, yesterday told how he was in bed sleeping when officers went to his house following the hoax call.

He said: ‘I was asleep. My mum was awake having a coffee in the kitchen, and a phone operative called as the police were on their way.

‘Four officers came in – two stayed downstairs with my mum and two came up to my room. They asked me if I made the call and they didn’t believe me when I said no.’

Barr, 19, pleaded guilty at Forfar Sheriff Court to a charge of wasting police time on July 27, 2014.

Sheriff Pino di Emidio imposed a community payback order comprising 120 hours of unpaid work.

He said the case involved a ‘very serious incident’ and described it as an ‘elaborate hoax’.

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