'Frankfurter' bomb hoax man is jailed

A bomb hoaxer who caused chaos with a few frankfurter sausages and an alarm clock has been jailed for 18 months.

Philip Steels, 38, marched into London Television Centre's foyer claiming he had an explosive device and was going to blow himself up.

Within minutes the Southbank premises were surrounded by dozens of armed officers and police explosives experts as a full-scale siege operation swung into action, Inner London Crown Court was told.

The first two floors of the 22-storey building - home to London Weekend Television, GMTV and London News Network - were evacuated as a tense stand-off developed over the next 2 hours 45 minutes.

Despite the massive disruption caused by the incident, programmes were not affected.

Philip Squire, prosecuting, said unemployed Steels, who admitted one count of communicating false information on May 4, eventually gave himself up just before lunchtime.

When officers examined the realistic-looking device which appeared to consist of sticks of dynamite and a timer, they found nothing more dangerous than several frankfurters wrapped in plastic film next to a clock.

Steels later blamed his behaviour on the fact that he had been sad at the time.

Jackie Vallego, defending, told the court her client, from Ponders End, Enfield, Middlesex, had been suffering from family problems.

Passing sentence Judge Robert Prendergast said his actions amounted to such a serious offence that only a custodial sentence could be justified.