A 20-year-old has today (29 September) been sent to a young offenders’ institution for two years for blackmailing his employer by threatening to blow up their vans.
Daniel Garland, from County Durham, admitted to sending an anonymous letter to G4S’s Teesside depot on 11 January this year.
In the letter, Garland threatened to detonate a number of remote-controlled ‘mini-bombs’, which he said were attached to G4S vans and staff vehicles, if a demand for £1 million in cash was not met. He also threatened to cause harm to the partner and new-born baby of a fellow employee.
Garland was working for G4S at the time. Suspicions were aroused during a police interview while a major hunt for the explosives was under way. His home was searched and a copy of the anonymous letter was found behind a poster. He admitted sending the bomb hoax, but denied it was in an attempt to blackmail G4S.
Helen Cox from the CPS said:
“Daniel Garland knowingly caused a huge amount of disruption for his employer, along with untold terror and anxiety for those he threatened.
“He intended to frighten and distress his employer and colleagues but his actions had far-reaching consequences. They resulted in the deployment of a significant amount of police resources at the public expense, the near shut down of the G4S Teesside depot and subsequent losses of around £15,000 to the company.
“The CPS presented a case to court that made his actions, and the very serious impact they had, abundantly clear and he must now face the consequences of his behaviour.”
