Man jailed for hoax bomb threats across UK

Paul Fisher, 61, from Oadby, made hoax bomb & gun threats at Heathrow, Birmingham Airport, police stations & hotels. He’s been jailed for over 5 years.

A Leicestershire man who made a string of hoax bomb and firearms threats targeting airports, train stations, hotels and police stations across the country has been jailed for more than five years.

Paul Fisher, 61, of St Peters Path, Oadby, was sentenced at Leicester Crown Court on Monday to five years and two months’ imprisonment after admitting eight counts of communicating false information about a bomb, alongside charges of threatening to destroy property and causing wasteful employment of police.

On 5 May this year, Fisher made a series of phone calls to multiple police forces under false names. Prosecutor Eunice Gedzah told the court he began by telephoning police at 10:41 BST, threatening to blow up The Ritz Hotel in London, before minutes later claiming he would rob a bank in Lincolnshire.

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Further calls to Lincolnshire Police claimed bombs had been planted outside a pub in Lincoln and another in Boston. Asked by a call handler why he had targeted the pub, Fisher replied he “felt like it”.

Later the same day, the Metropolitan Police received further hoax threats, including that bombs had been placed at Heathrow Airport, St Pancras railway station and near Scotland Yard.

In Birmingham, West Midlands Police treated a call from Fisher as a firearms incident after he threatened to bomb the city’s airport and “open fire and kill people”. Officers, including a dog unit, were deployed in response.

Fisher also contacted Humberside Police, claiming to have placed a device outside a Hull police station and to be in possession of a pistol. Again, officers were dispatched but no threat materialised.

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He was later arrested at his home address in Leicestershire.

‘Disturbingly serious’ offending