Employee fined over bomb threat to skive work

A 21-year-old Finnish woman who wanted to make a bomb threat as a “joke” so she could get off work earlier has been fined €500 after admitting to being an accomplice in a bomb threat to her workplace.

The court heard that on Sunday, the accused, Roosa-Maria Rimpilaeinen, wanted to get off work early.

She telephoned her friend, gave him the phone number of the company, and asked him to make a bomb threat.

Her friend, a 32-year-old man from Zebbug, Gozo, subsequently made the call and told the receptionist “he has information that there is a bomb.” Startled by the call, the receptionist asked him whether he was serious, but the man hung up.

In view of the bomb threat, the building was evacuated as a precaution.

Rimipilaeinen, who admitted to have been worried as a result of the evacuation, told the court that the bomb threat was only a joke.

Prosecuting inspector Jonathan Ransley told the court that the police arrested the man after they tracked his mobile phone number. During his interrogation, the man told police that the bomb threat was Rimpilaienen’s idea and that she had even given him the phone number of the premises.

The 32-year-old Gozitan man – whose name cannot be published by court order – admitted to making the bomb threat, while Roosa-Marie Rimpilaeine admitted to being an accomplice.

They were each fined €500.

Lawyer Jason Grima represented the accused.