Man made three false bomb claims on phone
HE GETS A FINE AND A COURT ORDER FOR 999 CALLS
Reporter A POLICE pest dialled 999 three times and claimed there was a bomb in a Newcastle branch of Tesco.
David Bates made the hoax calls to the emergency services and told them “Counter Terrorism, do your f****** job properly” one evening in February.
North Tyneside Magistrates’ Court was told that police didn’t take the calls “too seriously” and no Tesco stores were evacuated.
However, Bates was discovered after he was arrested for a separate matter and officers identified his mobile phone number as being the one used to make the malicious calls.
Now, the 32-year-old, of Red- land Avenue, Kenton, Newcastle, has been given a 12-month community order and fined £40 after he appeared in the dock on Wednesday to plead guilty to one malicious communication offence.
Laura Croft, prosecuting, said Bates made the first two calls at around 8.25pm on February 4 and told the call handlers that there was “a bomb in Tesco” before hanging up. She said: “The defendant then rings for a third time 45 minutes later. The call is from the same number and he says, ‘Counter Terrorism, do your f****** job properly.’
“Again, the call was ended before a conversation could be established.
“Then, on February 18, the defendant is arrested for an unrelated matter and a mob i le phone is found in his possession. That telephone number is matched with the earlier calls.
Miss Croft said she didn’t have any information to suggest there was any disruption caused to the public because of Bates’s hoax. Alanna Wesencraft, defending, said the phone calls were not taken seriously by the police and were “clearly ramblings” by Bates, who has 23 past convictions for 39 offences. The solicitor added: “I suspect the po l ice thought, ‘There is an idiot on the other end of the phone’, which is something Mr Bates would agree with. “He had had too much to drink. He’s thoroughly ashamed and appalled at himself.” Alanna Wesencraft