Dundee man threatens to blow up Barclays London HQ

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A RAGING customer threatened to blow up a London bank in a row over his direct debits.

John Driscoll flipped after spotting fraudulent activity on his account with Barclays Bank.

He phoned their helpline and demanded he be refunded a dubious £89 charge that had been taken by a company.

But when he was told the cash couldn’t be credited back until an investigation had taken place he lost the plot.

Driscoll told customer manager Ayaz Ali: “If you don’t have my money in my account by tonight I’ll go ballistic.

“I’m going to want to come to Barclays headquarters which I think is somewhere near the Natwest Tower and I’m going to blow it up whether there’s anybody in it or not.

“It won’t take me long to get hold of 200 pounds of Semtex and a few detonators.

“Don’t bother talking to the police about it.”

Fiscal depute Trina Sinclair told Dundee Sheriff Court that Driscoll then made a bizarre threat to reduce Barclays “credit in Qatar to zilch”.

She said: “The accused then said ‘you better put the money back in to the account or I’ll be down to London tomorrow’.

“He then added ‘You can tell who you like but it will f*****g happen and I hope you are in that place when it happens’.”

Qatar

Driscoll then said: “I’m off to Qatar with my brother next week - he happens to be doing a bit of business there and I’ll make sure your credit with the Qatari government is zilch.”

He added: “Do you know who the Driscoll brothere are? You will f*****g find that out.”

Driscoll, 60, of Balerno Street, Dundee, pleaded guilty to a charge under the Communications Act.

Defence solicitor Pamela Dobson said Driscoll had a previous conviction for a similar offence after losing the plot in a mobile phone shop.

She said: “He has worked in a call centre before so he appreciates how the person on the other end of the phone would have felt.

“He understands that he could be facing a prison sentence.”

Sheriff Alastair Carmichael imposed a community payback order with 150 hours of unpaid work.

He said: “I can understand your frustration but this is a very serious matter and given the circumstances and your record it puts a custodial sentence at the front of my mind.

“However, I’m prepared in this case to make a community payback order.”

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