Man who wore balaclava and carried fake weapon is jailed

A JUDGE has jailed a man who wore a balaclava and carried a fake weapon, forcing a mosque to go into lockdown.

Police received multiple 999 calls over more than an hour on April 19 this year when Scott Hodgson was seen wandering around a park and a busy road in Halifax with what some people believed to be a gun.

Bradford Crown Court heard that Hodgson had previously claimed to have made a bomb.

The 47-year-old, of Union Street South, Halifax, is now beginning a 12-month prison sentence in HMP Leeds after a jury found him guilty after a trial of possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.

Mr Recorder Alistair MacDonald KC said there were “great similarities” between the bomb hoax and the fake gun.

He said: “In both cases you wanted to cause fear and distress to other people, and you were essentially showing off by, on the one hand, suggesting that you were making bombs, and on the other hand suggesting that you had a rifle in your possession.”

The court heard that Hodgson was captured on CCTV taken from People’s Park and nearby housing with “innocuous” rods or poles which, when put together, were described by Recorder MacDonald as “very, very like a rifle”.

He added: “This was an offence committed in public places, and the degree of consternation that you caused is shown by the fact that four 999 calls were received by the police … reporting your activities.

“A call was made by a member of the public at 10.06am. The final call was made at 11.13am.

“So this spanned well over an hour.

“In addition, a call was made by a staff member at the mosque in Halifax.”

The mosque also sent out a message at 10.29am warning people of a man in the area wearing a balaclava “with a backpack and a gun”.

All mosque doors and gates were locked as a precaution. The police were called and began searching the area.

Worshippers were urged to stay indoors and to dial 999 if they saw anything suspicious.

Recorder MacDonald said: “That demonstrates to me the degree of fear and problems that you caused to the community by what you were thinking of, you said, as humorous activities.

“They weren’t. People took this very, very seriously.

“In the end, the rods constituted just imitations of a rifle, and in fact no serious harm was done to anyone as a result.”

The court heard that Hodgson’s “wide-ranging” criminal record included convictions for violence and harassment.

He was also sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment for making the bomb hoax in February 2023.

Recorder MacDonald said there was “a real risk of public disorder” as a result of Hodgson’s actions as demonstrated by the lockdown at the mosque and community concerns.

He said the minimum sentence that he was able to impose was 12 months’ imprisonment.

Telegraph and Argus