Peter Donoghue appeared at Swansea Crown Court.
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A GRANDFATHER put on a foreign accent and phoned his local social club during bingo night to say there was a bomb in the building.
Peter Donoghue made the threat on the evening of May 25 when he spoke to a female member of staff at Bryn and Trallwm Sports and Social Club in Llwynhendy.
Prosecuting at Swansea Crown Court, Craig Jones said the 24-year-old bar worker who picked up the phone heard a man with a foreign accent say, 'Listen to me, listen to me carefully, there is a bomb in the club'.
Mr Jones said the employee thought it was a joke, but the man then repeated the threat and told her she needed to go home. When she told him she was busy with customers, the man said: "You will die".
The bar worker retrieved the caller's number and staff at the club rang it, whereupon Donoghue answered but denied he had made any threat.
Police were called to the Gelli Road building but club staff decided not to evacuate it as they were concerned about the alarm and distress it would cause the mainly elderly clientele.
"There was potential for widespread panic," said Mr Jones.
The court heard there had been two recent bomb scares in the area, including one that very day which resulted in pupils from nearby St Michael's School being moved to Bryn and Trallwm Sports and Social Club.
Donoghue, aged 50, of Heol Hen, initially pleaded not guilty to a communicating false information with intent charge but changed it to guilty on the morning of his trial on October 19.
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Defending, James Hartson said his client was genuinely remorseful and had lost long-standing friendships as a result of his actions.
"I acknowledge this was a very foolish — in fact — stupid act on his behalf," said Mr Hartson.
"There is a background of stress, and depression.
"His behaviour was extremely reckless. He didn't mean to cause mayhem. The full magnitude of what he has done has hit home."
Judge Peter Heywood told Donoghue that his offence was serious.
"It was serious because you have put on a foreign accent and, as we know at the moment, the whole of Europe is constantly under stress with the threat of terrorist attacks," he said.
"We know what has happened in cities like Brussels and Paris in recent times."
But he added that the offence was out of character, and cited several references that pointed to the defendant's "fine qualities".
Judge Heywood gave Donoghue a 10-month sentence suspended for two years, and ordered him to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work in the Llwynhendy area, pay £500 prosecution costs and carry out a 20-day rehabilitation requirement.
He told Donoghue he had come "within a whisker" of prison.
"You could not complain if I sent you to custody but I'm being remorseful because of your previous clean character and because you had the sense to plead guilty," he said.
Read more at http://www.southwales-eveningpost.co.uk/grandad-put-on-foreign-accent-and-said-there-was-a-bomb-in-social-club-building/story-29994126-detail/story.html#1oaivXYMteYZU01I.99
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