Man gets community service for nightclub bomb hoax

A man who called in a bomb scare to a Dublin nightclub causing it to be evacuated because some of his friends had gone there instead of attending his 21st birthday celebrations has to perform 150 hours community service.

Kris Holmes (aged 21) made the hoax bomb call to gardaí on his own mobile phone "in a moment of madness" after some of his friends did not join him at the nightclub where he had his party.

Holmes, of Kildare Road, Crumlin, pleaded guilty to making a false report that there was a bomb in Barcode Nightclub, Westwood Club, Clontarf Road on April 12, 2009.

Judge Katherine Delahunt told Holmes that people who make these kinds of calls usually end up serving custodial sentences but she did not believe that he or the community would be best served by incarcerating him.

She ordered that he carry out 150 hours community service in lieu of a one prison year sentence. The maximum penalty for this offence is five years imprisonment.

Judge Delahunt ordered him to pay €1,000 to Focus Ireland and €1,000 to The Samaritans.

Garda Lisa Sheehan told Mr Paul Carroll BL, prosecuting, that a call was made at 1.16 am from a mobile phone to the 999 emergency line stating there was a bomb in Barcode Nightclub. The busy club was evacuated for a short time while gardaí carried out a search but they found no suspicious devices.

Gda Sheehan said they quickly traced the mobile phone number to Holmes, who was the registered owner, and attended at his home on April 24. He was arrested and admitted making the call.

He told gardaí initially that he had been refused entry to the club and later said friends of his whom he thought should have come to his 21st birthday party had gone to Barcode instead.

Holmes said he made the call from Dame Street near the club he went to. He apologised and said he had too much to drink on the night. He has no previous convictions and lives with his parents.

Defence counsel, Mr Cormac Quinn BL, said Holmes had been holding his birthday celebrations at SIN nightclub in Dame Street but some of his friends went to Barcode instead and he had been refused entry.

Mr Quinn said he had made the threat "in a moment of madness or fit of pique" because he felt his friends should come to his birthday party. He did not think it through and made the call from his own phone.

He said Holmes had got "the fright of his life" due to this court case and he will never re-offend again.

Mr Quinn submitted that Holmes came from a decent, hardworking and law abiding family who were "horrified" when the gardaí attended at their home. He said if Holmes were any younger his mother "would have hit him a slap."

He said Holmes worked two or three days a week as an apprentice glazier. He said the offence was "not premeditated, rather a reckless act" and his conviction would have ramifications for his desire to work abroad in the future.

Mr Quinn said Holmes was “deeply embarrassed” by his actions and was unlikely to get into trouble again.