A MAN who drunkenly threatened to bomb shops and a police station has locked up.

Darryn Bolt, 41, of Beaufort Close in Fairwater, Cwmbran, admitted making the hoax calls to Gwent Police on two days between Christmas and New Year, 2017.

Newport Crown Court heard Bolt made his first call at 8.30pm on December 29 last year, when he dialled 999 and asked a Gwent Police force control operator and asked to be put through to West Midlands Police.

The defendant made a second call to the same operator nine minutes later, during which he said: “I’m going to kill somebody.”

“He sounded intoxicated,” said prosecutor Suzanne Payne,

“On this call he told the operator that a prostitute he knew was in trouble.

“He made remarks of people that he knew who were ex-military and were going to ‘go up against the police’.

“He talked about pimps and said: ‘If a pimp in the area didn’t leave he was going to die.’

“In a third call at 9.12pm he told operators that he was going to bomb a shop connected to armed robberies.

“He said: ‘Cwmbran police station will be gone within the hour.’

“This was making reference to bomb it. The number was recognised as that of the defendant.”

The court also heard Bold dialled 999 again on December 30, and told operators there was a bomb about to go off in the Dudley area of the West Midlands.

By this point, Ms Payne told the court, operators knew not to take the calls seriously, and no action was taken on the information given by Bolt.

Bolt was arrested on December 31 and pleaded guilty to communicating false information regarding a bomb and using electronic communications to convey false information.

In mitigation, Stephen Thomas said: “These were long, rambling conversations that didn’t make sense. Nobody was impacted apart from the fore control operators in an indirect way.

“The defendant was heavily intoxicated, and I know that your honour will give him full credit for pleading guilty at the earliest opportunity.”

Sentencing Bolt to eight months in jail, Judge Jeremy Jenkins said: “The time of the operators was wasted.

“They perform a vital public service.

“There was the risk that a genuine call for help might have been diverted at the time when engaged with you.

“I take the view that you are responsible for this serious offence, for which the maximum penalty set by the Home Office is seven years – an indication of how seriously they take it.

“These offences are far too serious to be dealt with by a community order. The public would not consider that I had dealt with this offence properly if I did not hand down an immediate custodial sentence.”