A BEEKEEPER who made a hoax phone call to police claiming that a bus passenger was armed with a handgun has been given a suspended prison sentence.

Rhys Williams Jones, 22, who now lives in Newtown, Wales, pleaded guilty to possession of a knife after police boarded the bus on which he was travelling at Bridgwater bus station on December 10 last year.

The prosecution said that armed officers were called to the bus station after police received information that a passenger travelling from Taunton to Bridgewater had shown a handgun and a knife.

But it then emerged that there was no such incident – and that Jones had been the one to make the call.

“Police officers spoke to the male and they quickly determined that he had been passing the information. No person with a gun or knife was located. It was all fabricated,” Scott McCrimmon said.

Officers arrested Jones when a knife was found in his jacket. During a police interview, Jones explained that he forgot that he had the knife on him, which he used to cut excess grass around his beehives.

“He could not give reason why he passed the information to the police,” Mr McCrimmon said, adding that Jones “did not brandish” the knife.

Alex Fitzgerald, defending, told the court that Jones had moved to Newtown to live with his girlfriend following the incident in Somerset.

“There is a very lengthy pre-sentence report. The defendant has a lot of vulnerabilities,” Mr Fitzgerald said.

“There are good reasons that the defendant should not be sent immediately to custody."

Jones, of Cwrt Eglwys, Newtown, escaped jail as he was handed a six-month sentence, with chair of the magistrates' bench Nerys Jones suspending it for 12 months.

He will also need to pay £85 costs, £128 victim surcharge and carry out 25 rehabilitation days as part of a community order.