'There's a bomb': Hoax calls shut down four businesses - The Queensland Times

"THERE'S a bomb and everyone has to evacuate immediately."

It was the alarming phone call a Boonah bank branch received in October last year, sparking a mass evacuation of staff and customers.

Krystal Maree Gabriel, 28, called three businesses on the same day, telling them she heard a rumour there was a bomb in the building or she had information to suggest there was.

Gabriel called the NAB Bank, the IGA supermarket and the post office between five and seven times.

She also called Ipswich Police and told them there was a bomb at the Commercial Hotel in Boonah.

All four business had to be evacuated and searched before staff and customers could go back inside.

She then called 000 five times and asked why "her threats had not been taken seriously".

The Mount Alford woman later told police she made the hoaxes as a joke and settle a $210 drug debt.

She was told "if she did it she wouldn't have to pay the drug debt".

Gabriel pleaded guilty in Ipswich District Court to four counts of bomb hoax. Defence lawyer Geoff Seaholme yesterday said his client described the crime as a "dare".

"It is rank stupidity but it caused a lot on inconvenience," Mr Seaholme said.

Mr Seaholme told the court Gabriel, a mother of a five-month-old, was taking drugs at the time of the offence but had since quit.

The court heard her criminal offending started in 2016 when she was caught with cannabis.

Judge Dennis Lynch told Gabriel the bomb hoaxes had a significant cost to the four businesses.

"No one should think this is funny. You caused alarm for authorities who had to go and investigate and make sure those places were safe," Judge Lynch said. "It had a significant cost to the community and to the businesses that were not able to trade normally. No one should find that remotely humorous."

Gabriel was sentenced to six months jail with immediate parole.

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