Uk Expat Flies Home To Rob Bank, Gets 5 Years.

[taxexile]

Five years for fake bomber

Friday, September 11, 2009, 09:10
A 60-YEAR-OLD man who used a fake bomb to try to rob a bank was arrested by police when he fled to Brixham, a court heard.
Police caught Michael Metcalfe when he was traced to his elderly mother's home in the port following the robbery bid at a branch of Lloyds TSB near Gloucester.
Metcalfe, who staged the attempted robbery because he could not afford to look after his Thai bride and child, pleaded guilty to blackmail and was jailed for five years.
Former steel company worker and fish and chip shop owner Metcalfe used the last of his cash to fly back to the UK from his home in Thailand to stage the attempt.
He left a holdall in the bank with a note claiming it contained 35lbs of high explosives which would detonate if his instructions were not followed.


The note ordered the bank manager to put all the money in two bin bags and take them to a nearby British Legion car park.
But brave manager Mark Strangward ignored the instructions, raised the alarm and had the bank and surrounding area evacuated.
Shops and a playgroup full of young children all had to be evacuated in a major emergency operation which caused a day of chaos in the area, said prosecutor Lisa Hennessy.
When Metcalfe, waiting nearby, realised that his plan had failed he drove back to his elderly mother's home in Brixham, where police tracked him down three days later and arrested him, Mrs Hennessy said.
Judge Martin Picton told him it was a 'really, really serious offence.'
"The note you delivered with a bag and a mobile phone was chilling to read and would have been desperately frightening for those who faced it for real in the bank and would have believed it to be real," said the judge.
"It meant that the area had to be evacuated, children taken out of a nursery, people moved. The drama and tension will live on with them.
"I am told some of the bank employees are still suffering nightmares in coming to terms with what they had to experience that day.
"Total chaos was created by this."
The judge went on: "In Thailand I understand there were clearly desperate circumstances for you and you schemed and planned this exercise in terrorisation and travelled to this country with the last of your money with a view to engaging in a last desperate throw of the dice to get you out of the dreadful mess you were in.
"I sympathise with the mess you were in but it was other people who paid the price of your actions and you are now going to pay the price for that."
Following the sentencing, a spokesman for Devon and Cornwall police said: "We made the arrest on behalf of Gloucestershire police.
"They called us to make this arrest locally but they were in charge of the investigation.
"The arrest took place peacefully on July 25. The man was taken into custody and Gloucestershire officers then collected him."
Bank manager Mark Strangward noticed a black holdall had been left under a desk and when he checked it, found it contained a mobile phone, two bin liners and a note which warned 'This is not a hoax. The bag on the floor contains 35lbs of high explosives. It will completely destroy the bank and other premises and kill or badly injure many people'.
Mrs Hennessy told the court Metcalfe, who has lived in Thailand for the last three years, had no previous convictions.
Lloyd Jenkins, defending, said Metcalfe had three children in their 30s from a marriage which ended in 2000.
In 2006 he went to Thailand on holiday but fell ill and spent four months in hospital.
He was befriended and taken in by a Thai family and later married a local woman with whom he has a two-year-old child.
It was because Metcalfe was financially desperate and unable to go on looking after his Thai family that he hatched the plan to come back to the UK and stage the robbery bid, he said.

[crippen]

What can one say.Sounds safer than drug dealing in LOS I suppose.Could be out in 2 years.

[Loombucket]

Brilliant! You have to feel sorry for his Wife and kid.

[nigelandjan]

What a complete prick !!!!! I hope with his criminal record the Thai authorities turn the prick around when he gets back there and refuse him entry

[The Fresh Prince]

How did they trace him? Through the mobile phone?

[Spitfire]

Just highlights the desperation of so many at the moment, we've seen a few other cases of it on the news threads recently, ie rising Thai crime here etc and the idiot rodding a bank in Rangsit, and the rest. This guy must have been in La La land if he thought he was going to get away with this one.

[taxexile]

Metcalfe had three children in their 30s from a marriage which ended in 2000.
In 2006 he went to Thailand on holiday but fell ill and spent four months in hospital.
He was befriended and taken in by a Thai family and later married a local woman with whom he has a two-year-old child.

i wonder why his 3 uk children did not offer him any help?

...... sorry , i forgot that western kids abandon their parents as soon as they become financially independant.

[Bangyai]

And they say dinosaurs had brains the size of walnuts ? What a Twatipus Rex.

[English Noodles]

i forgot that western kids abandon their parents as soon as they become financially independant.

Like anywhere, it depends on the family. Many Thai women abandon their kids when they are infants and fob them of on to their parents. Not many Westerners do that.

[Carnwadrick]

How did they trace him? Through the mobile phone?

Travel tag on the bag ??

[Fuzzy Bob]

I've no sympathy at all for the balloon head. Another of life's great losers.

[Loy Toy]

You would of thought that at least he could of gone back, found work (anything) and to generate enough funds to support his Thai family.

200 Quid a month goes a long way here for a common mum and small child.

Silly twat!

[Chairman Mao]

i forgot that western kids abandon their parents as soon as they become financially independant.

Like anywhere, it depends on the family. Many Thai women abandon their kids when they are infants and fob them of on to their parents. Not many Westerners do that.

Have witnessed this over the past 2 months. Mother vanished, Grandmother couldn't give a shit. Left to the extremely busy/hardworking aunt next door to take care of her nephew cause no one else could give a shit... Sad, the lad didn't have any nappies yesterday cause the grandmother didn't give anymoney last time she showed up and the aunt was waiting on a day's payment from her laundry.

Oh yeah, the thread. Who cares, not me, fok the stupid bastard.

[Chairman Mao]

You would of thought that at least he could of gone back, found work (anything) and to generate enough funds to support his Thai family.

200 Quid a month goes a long way here for a common mum and small child.

Silly twat!

If you're Western, 60 and got nothing to your name, you deserve everything you get ffs.

[buriramboy]

Metcalfe had three children in their 30s from a marriage which ended in 2000.
In 2006 he went to Thailand on holiday but fell ill and spent four months in hospital.
He was befriended and taken in by a Thai family and later married a local woman with whom he has a two-year-old child.

i wonder why his 3 uk children did not offer him any help?

Probably a bit pissed off that their Dad abandonned them for a third world prostitute.

[English Noodles]

Probably a bit pissed off that their Dad abandonned them for a third world prostitute.

He probably already spunked what inheritance they were hoping for on cheap whores.

[DrivingForce]

Damn EN got in the way. So I had to add another one of these ^

^^I see, selfish westernized cnuts in other words... They're in their 30's for Christophers sakes! He and his wife stayed together their entire youth and raised them into adulthood and then when he goes to find a new life after a divorce, not even to cheat on her during his marriage, instead of being happy for him they should feel abandoned?? Oh poor, self centered, spoiled babies!!

[Nietzsche]

At least he spent it & didn't leave it to them.

[crippen]

Former steel company worker and fish and chip shop owner Metcalfe. Both of these jobs killed of by the powers that be .Steel by Maggie,and fish by the EEC.

[Dean]

At least, he didn't attempt what has become popular in America; kill the wife and children and commit suicide.

[TizMe]

Can he still be a TV moderator while he's inside?

[crippen]

Wonder if wife will wait for him,or even if she knows??

[voyagerfreak]

Called My uncle a Prick!! Hes More Like A Dick. To Hell With Him!

[Loy Toy]

^ Welcome to Teak Door and a great first post.

You will certainly go a long way here!

[ItsRobsLife]

5 years, out in 2..

Would have been 10 if he'd gone in with a fake gun.