Woman plants fake bomb to avoid work

A woman working at an army base pub planted a fake bomb because she did not want to go to work, a court has heard.

Catherine Matchett, 35, from Wareham, Dorset, was told by a judge at Bournemouth Crown Court that she narrowly avoided going to jail.

Matchett was sentenced to 160 hours community punishment order and told to pay £1,325 compensation.

She pleaded guilty to placing an article with intent under a table at Semaphore Arms pub at Blandford Camp, Dorset, last November.

This was a practical joke that went very seriously wrong

Judge Michael Harington

Hamish Dunlop, prosecuting, told Judge Michael Harington that Matchett had been working at the pub at the time and came up with the plan after a conversation with another employee.

He said: "They had a conversation as to the fact that they did not particularly want to work that evening for various reasons.

"The upshot was that a device, a fake bomb, was constructed using a pair of trainers belonging to her former boyfriend, and placed inside a cardboard box which was wrapped around with tape."

The package was left under a table in the pub and found by an off-duty soldier, who alerted the authorities.

'Have a laugh'

It took bomb disposal experts until the early hours of the following day to realise that the package was not a genuine explosive device.

Mr Dunlop said that numerous homes had been evacuated.

Sally Carter, in mitigation, said Matchett's intentions had been just to frighten a couple of the pub's regulars, but instead caused widespread disruption to the base.

She said: "A group working there that evening decided to do this to have a laugh with the regulars.

'Unbelievable stupidity'

"It was not intended to cause the disruption that it did. No one is more sorry for that than Miss Matchett."

Sentencing Matchett, Judge Harington said: "What you did was an act of quite unbelievable stupidity and irresponsibility.

"This was a practical joke that went very seriously wrong."

He accepted that Matchett did not intend her actions to go as far as they did and told her that instead of prison she would have to work for the community and pay back money lost through the closure of the pub that evening.

Matchett, who had no previous criminal convictions, no longer works at the base.