Partner Article

Ministry of Justice worker made hoax bomb calls to get out of work

A MINISTRY of Justice worker made two hoax calls claiming there was a bomb in his building because he wanted to go home early, a court heard.

Andre Lake, 26, who had been working as an administration officer in the Youth Justice Office for four months, posed as the building’s head of security when he made his second call.

City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard Lake admitted he had made the two 999 phone calls because he “no longer enjoyed his work, had no annual leave left and he wanted to leave early.”

Prosecutor Darren Watts said: “Police received a call to the Ministry of Justice building in Petty France in relation to a bomb threat.

“A male voice said there was a bomb in the Ministry of Justice building before hanging up.

“That call was made at 7.15am and subsequent inquires traced the call to within the building.

“A second call at was received at 8.20am.

“The caller reported himself to be head of security at the Ministry of Justice, but was in fact this defendant conveying the same threat.”

An investigation led by police and government security officers managed to identify the phones used to make the calls and tracked them to the fifth and seventh floors of the building.

The court heard 12 bags of herbal cannabis were later found at Lake’s home and he claimed he had a £200 per month addiction to the class B drug.

He was bailed to appear at Southwark Crown Court for sentence later this year.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .