'Invisible' bomb threat bandit is sent to jail
A gambling addict who threatened to blow himself up while demanding money as he committed a string of robberies, including one in Mid Wales, has been jailed for seven and a half years.
Lloyd Kieran Jones, of Glynneath, South Wales, embarked on a two-week spree at betting shops and travel agencies across eight counties in England and Wales.
One of the premises targeted was the Thomson travel agents in Newtown on October 25 last year.
Cardiff Crown Court heard that the 32-year-old carried out the attacks while out of prison on licence for robbery.
The court heard the father-of-two used crude disguises in a pitiful attempt to hide his identity, such as wearing a plaster over one of his eyes, before issuing his chilling demands for money.
Mr Tony Trigg, prosecuting, said the defendant deliberately targeted women at premises he viewed as 'soft touches'.
Mr Trigg said: "His method in each case was to use a plastic carrier which had wires protruding from it and giving his female victims a hand-written note saying that unless they gave him money he would detonate a bomb.
"They did not know the bomb was not real and genuinely feared for their lives.
"Some of the women had to receive counselling and are still traumatised by what happened." Jones was arrested when police noticed a man with a bag full of wires acting suspiciously.
Jones, who pleaded guilty to six counts of robbery and two of attempted robbery, wrote the Recorder of Cardiff Judge Eleri Rees a letter saying he was 'profoundly sorry' for his actions and the consequences they had caused for his victims.
Defending barrister David Rees said his client – who believed he was 'invisible' during the bomb plots – had a long-standing gambling addiction as well as drink and drug problems.
