Man found guilty of providing false information about bomb hoax in Sudbury

A man has been found guilty of providing false information about a bomb hoax, which resulted in Sudbury town centre being evacuated.

Mark Brett, 41, was cleared on Wednesday by a jury at Ipswich Crown Court, of a second offence of placing an article, with others, with intent to induce the belief that it was likely to explode.

The verdicts came after a trial in which the jury heard how a rucksack containing wires and four batteries taped together was found abandoned in Barclays Bank in Market Hill on January 31.

A call made from Brett's mobile phone, but not using his SIM card, had reported the incident to the emergency services and led to an Army bomb squad being called in and a cordon being placed around the town centre.

Prosecutor Richard Scott said it was accepted that Brett, of Tudor Road, Sudbury, did not place the rucksack in the bank, but his DNA had been found on the bag and one of his fingerprints on the batteries.

Following his arrest, Brett claimed to have found the batteries on a building site and had later placed them in a waste bin after trying to make a larger power unit by taping them together.

He said he had known nothing of the incident, until he tried to collect a prescription and found Market Hill sealed off.

The court heard that at the time the call was made to the emergency services, CCTV images showed Brett and another man on the opposite side of Market Hill to Barclays Bank.

Brett had pleaded not guilty to both charges.

Following the verdicts, Judge Emma Peters ordered the preparation of a report on Brett by the Probation Service, before he is brought back to the same court to be sentenced.