Six months for hoaxer

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33778, 26 February 1975, Page 3

Six months for hoaxer

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, February 25. A man who telephoned Wellington Airport staff and told them a bomb was about to explode on board an in-transit flight to Melbourne this month appeared in the Magistrate’s Court today for sentence on a charge of making a fictitious telephone call.

! James Scorringe, aged 34, 'an unemployed driver, who i had previously pleaded ! guilty to the charge, was ! sentenced to six months imprisonment by Mr G. P. 'Monaghan, S.M. Mr N. C. H. Hewot, who ! appeared for Scorringe, said he had read the psychiatric report before the court today, and that Scorringe was a sorry and sad man with many mental and physical problems. Mr Monaghan, on sentencing, said the case was sad because the offence demanded a deterrent sentence.

The police summary said that over the period from Saturday, February 1, until Monday, February 3, numerous hoax bomb and fire calls were received by various departments in Wellington. On the evening of Monday, February 3, Scorringe had been seen by the police at Wellington Airport acting in a suspicious manner and paying attention to the flight timetables and numbers. Scorringe was seen to leave the airport a few minutes before the departure of the DCB. He went from the airport to a nearby telephone box. He then called Air New Zealand, and said there was a bomb on the recentlydeparted flight to Melbourne which was due to explode in 20 minutes.

I The call was traced by the ; police to a suburban phone box, not far from which Scorringe was located. He denied making the hoax call, saying that he had gone to the airport to watch ’planes arriving and departing, as he often did.