Teenager gets three years after sending hoax emails to schools in Oldham

Picture courtesy of National Crime Agency

A teenager from Hertfordshire has been sentenced to three years in prison after admitting to making bomb threats to thousands of schools and a United Airlines flight travelling from the UK to San Francisco in August this year.

George Duke-Cohan, aged 19, pleaded guilty to three counts of making hoax bomb threats at Luton Crown Court in September 2018 following an investigation by the National crime Agency.

Duke-Cohan sent the bomb threats that resulted in a number of schools in the UK being evacuated in March 2018 for which he was arrested just days later.

These schools included a number across Greater Manchester, including some in Oldham and Rochdale.

In April while under investigation, he sent a mass email to schools in the UK and the US claiming that pipe bombs had been planted on the premises.

On August 9, the hacker group known as ‘Apophis Squad’ claimed on their Twitter page that flight UAL 949 had been grounded due to their actions.

National Crime Agency investigators working with the FBI identified that whilst on pre-charge bail for the threats to schools, Duke-Cohan made bomb threats to the US-bound flight via phone calls to San Francisco Airport and their Bureau police.

In a recording of one of the phone calls which was made while the plane was in the air, he takes on the persona of a worried father and claims his daughter contacted him from the flight to say it had been hijacked by gunmen, one of whom had a bomb.

On arrival in San Francisco the plane was the subject of a significant security operation in a quarantined area of the airport.

All 295 passengers had to remain on board causing disruption to onward journeys and financial loss to the airline.

In an operation supported by Hertfordshire Police, Duke-Cohan was arrested by NCA officers for the third time at his home in Watford on Friday, August 31.
 
Officers recovered multiple electronic devices belonging to him, the use of which was in contravention to the pre-charge bail conditions imposed on him.

NCA Senior Investigating Officer Marc Horsfall said: “This investigation proves that operating online does not offer offenders anonymity.

"Duke-Cohan now has a criminal record which will harm his future career prospects and this should act as a deterrent to others.”

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