AN IRISH MAN, who worked for Intel as a sub-contractor may be forced to carry out community service after paying his friend to make a hoax bomb call to the company and causing mass disruption.
Aaron O’Neill, 20, paid his friend Colin Hammond, 21, to make the call from a payphone, after the pair had spent the night drinking and taking tablets.
The call, which shut down the M4 motorway, disrupted air traffic control and prevented 4,000 Intel staff from going into work, was made because O’Neill wanted to avoid work the next day.
Garda Eamonn McFadden estimated that at the very least the incident lost Intel 6,000 hours of production, The Irish Times reported.
Mr O’Neill of Chieftains Drive, Balbriggan and Hammond of Bath Road, also in Balbriggan, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to making a false report on Bath Road on January 13, 2015.
Neither of the men have previous convictions.
During the 999 call, Mr Hammond told the operator there were bombs located at the company's premises and that they would detonate 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.”
When his case was heard in October, Hammond was ordered to carry out 200 hours community service in lieu of a two-year prison sentence.
On Tuesday, November 24 Judge Nolan adjourned O’Neill’s case to January to get a report from the Probation Service to assess whether he was suitable for community service.
“It is a very, very strange way to avoid going to work,” Judge Nolan said.
O’Neill was arrested in March when he admitted to the offence.
He said the idea was not planned out in detail, but that 6am was the time decided to make the call.
It was agreed the call should be made from the phone-box on Hammond’s street.
