A Dublin man who urged his friend to phone in a bomb threat to Intel so he could avoid going to work is facing 200 hours of community service.
Last January, 20-year-old Aaron O’Neill was out drinking and taking pills with his friend Colin Hammond when he decided he did not want to go in the next day.
Instead of just pulling a sickie, he O’Neill got Hammond to phone in a bomb threat on the morning of 13th January, 2015. The call was placed from a payphone outside Hammond’s home.
The two friends managed to shut down a motorway, as well as air traffic control, and prevented 4,000 Intel staff from getting into work.
According to the Irish Times, Hammond told the operator there were bombs located at Intel which would ‘go off in 12 hours.’
“You will not find them. This is a warning, we’re everywhere now,” Hammond told emergency services. When asked who was making the call, he replied: “Islamic State.”
Hammond’s case was dealt with last month and Judge Martin Nolan handed down a sentence of 200 hours’ community service in lieu of a custodial sentence.
He described Hammond – who was caught when he was brought to a police station for refusing to pay a taxi fare and the garda recognised his voice from the Intel call – as “profoundly stupid.”
Now Judge Nolan must sentence O’Neill next month, and suggested he would be handed a similar sentence.
“It is a very, very strange way to avoid going to work,” Judge Nolan said.
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