Police release Knaresborough bomb hoax 999 call

Shamsul Islam was jailed for three and a half years for making the hoax call. Credit: ITV Tyne Tees

West Yorkshire Police have released the hoax 999 call, made to officers last October, claiming there was a bomb plot in Knaresborough.

The call sparked a major security operation in the centre of the North Yorkshire town, centred on a pizza shop called Paragon Pizza, where the hoaxer, Shamsul Islam, said staff were making a bomb.

Shamsul Islam, 23, who is currently serving an eight-year prison sentence for drug offences, was found guilty of three charges of communicating a bomb hoax in October 2013.

He was jailed for three-and-a-half years for the calls and a six months for perverting the course of justice.

He called 999 on the 16 October 2013, claiming to have been coerced against his will into helping with a bomb plot.

Operator: "West Yorkshire Police, what's your emergency?"

Shamsul Islam: "I just want to let you know there's going to be a plot going on today.

Operator: "There's going to be a what going on?

Shamsul Islam: "A bomb plot, today."

He reveals 'details' of the fake bomb, claims he is with those making the 'bomb' but repeatedly insists on not being identified.

Shamsul Islam: "They've got equipment and everything and today's the day they're moving it out and planting it."

He tells the 999 operator that a shop on Knaresborough High Street, Paragon Pizza, is the target.

Reacting to the call, North Yorkshire Police sent a "rapid and dynamic deployment of a large number of local and specialist police resources" to Knaresborough High Street.

Roads were closed off as police dealt with what they believed to be a 'real and credible threat and danger to the public'.

Shamsul Islam's brother, Habibul Islam, 22, of Spencer Place, Leeds, previously pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice and making a false statement to obtain insurance after producing his insurance details to the police to cover his brother's driving offences and giving a false address.

He was given a six-month jail term for perverting the course of justice and a further six months for fraud.

Both to run concurrently and suspended for 12 months. He was also given 180 hours of unpaid work.