A HAMPSHIRE man has been jailed for falsely telling police he had planted a nail bomb on a train - a year to the day after making a hoax bomb threat at a hotel.
Luke Cartwright dialled 999 from a phone box at Southampton Central train station on May 8 2015 and said he had put a bomb on a train with a timer set to make it explode at 8pm that day.
Officers rushed to the station and found 25-year-old Cartwright, who the court had previously heard had taken a legal high called Spice, still on the phone.
He claimed the explosive device was in a black rucksack in the middle compartment of the train underneath a seat, but after being arrested and interviewed he immediately admitted that the call was false.
During the sentencing hearing at Southampton Crown Court it was revealed that Cartwright was sent to prison after calling The Manor hotel in Sway on May 8, 2014, and telling the manager there was a bomb on the premises.
Guy Draper, representing Cartwright, told Judge Nicholas Rowland that a psychological report revealed that Cartwright made the hoax threats because he wanted to be jailed.
He said: "The concern of the pre-sentence report is that he commits these offences to go to prison.
"He accepts that these offences are extremely serious and expects a significant prison sentence but it may be the case that he did it in order to be sent to prison.
"I would submit that this is at the lower end of an offence of this type - the train was not stopped and there was no disruption.
"In the scheme of bomb hoaxes it's not as serious as it might have been. He's a vulnerable man and and mentally unwell."
Cartwright was jailed in August last year after the same court heard that a hoax call was made to The Manor prompting a three-hour search of the building involving officers and specialist dog units.
Eventually the call was traced to Cartwright and he admitted making the false threat.
Judge Rowland said: "The first time you were sent to prison for nine months but this one was committed in currency of a suspended sentence order.
"There are similarities in the mitigation for why you have committed these types of offences."
Cartwright, of no fixed abode, was jailed for 18 months and fined £900.
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