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

Judge Timothy Spencer KC said Fisher’s actions caused widespread disruption and unnecessary diversion of police resources. Sentencing, he told the defendant:

“This is a sad and sorry case. I actually have a lot of sympathy for you. I think you’ve had a sad, lonely and largely wasted life. But these offences are disturbingly serious. The judge noted Fisher’s “well-documented” history of mental illness, including bipolar affective disorder, but stressed that such threats carried a real impact on emergency services and the public.

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Defence: ‘Enormous waste’

James Bide-Thomas, mitigating, accepted the calls represented “an enormous waste” of public time and money but said Fisher was “very sorry” for his actions.

He told the court his client suffers from bipolar disorder and auditory illusions. The offending occurred when Fisher stopped taking his prescribed medication because of the side effects.

The court heard he had been in contact with medical and crisis teams on numerous occasions since 2006, and had previously made “positive contributions” before his mental health deteriorated.

Police statement

Following the sentencing, Detective Constable Kevin Sharkey of Leicestershire Police said:

“The impact hoax calls can have on the emergency services, businesses and the public are vast. Such mindless actions interrupt our infrastructure and end up costing significant amounts of money.”

Fisher will serve half his sentence in custody before being released on licence.

Well, that’s all for now. But until our next article, please stay tuned, stay informed, but most of all stay safe, and I’ll see you then.