Man jailed for faking bomb threat because he was late and wanted flight delayed

A man who called in a bomb threat to delay a flight he was running late for has been jailed. Jacob Meir Abdellak called in the hoax eight minutes before the plane was due to take-off from Gatwick Airport on May 11.

The 47-year-old still didn’t make the flight to Los Angeles even after it was delayed for 90 minutes because of the suspected threat.

Metro news reports that, Staff later tracked the anonymous hoax call to the phone Abdellak used for his original booking.

He initially denied he made the call after being charged with communicating false information regarding a noxious substance likely to create serious risk to human health.

Abdellak, from Hackney, east London, claimed his sim card had been stolen.

But he changed his mind on Tuesday when his trial was set to begin at Lewes Crown Court, in East Sussex, and admitted the charge. Abdellak was jailed for ten months and required to pay a £140 victim surcharge.