A HOAXER who claimed IRA bombs had been planted in St Albans is this week beginning a two-and-a-half-year jail sentence.

Stephen Torrance, of Lemsford Road, St Albans, twice used an IRA code word and sparked major alerts.

In the first call he said a bomb was going to explode in the Marks and Spencer's store in St Peter's Street. In the second he said a bomb was planted in the city but gave no further details.

Passing sentence at St Albans Crown Court on Saturday, Judge Colin Colston QC told 34-year-old Torrance: 'Police in this county take bomb threats and terrorist threats seriously because they have actual experience of bombs going off in the centre of St Albans.'

The judge reminded Torrance how during the 1990's two terrorists had blown themselves up as they were about to plant a bomb.

Torrance pleaded guilty to two offences of making a bomb hoax call and four offences of communicating false messages.

Mr Maurice Astin, prosecuting, said on February 17, last year, Torrance made a call from a telephone kiosk in Stanhope Road, St Albans, to a BT operator, giving a recognised IRA code word and saying he was from the Provisional IRA.

He then claimed a bomb was about to go off in Marks and Spencer's. The call was treated seriously and the store was evacuated and searched.

A short while later another call was made by Torrance from the same kiosk. This time he claimed to have seen a man with a handgun outside a house in Lemsford Road and to have heard shots coming from inside the property. The house was just two doors from his own.

Two days later Torrance made another call from the same kiosk giving an IRA code word and claiming a bomb was going to go off in the city.

By the time police had traced the phone box, Torrance had vanished.

In further calls from Beaconsfield Road, St Albans, Torrance said robberies were taking place at a house in Lemsford Road and at a local pub.

It was during this last call that police finally caught Torrance after an operator kept him talking.

Torrance's previous convictions included a three-year jail term for arson and another three-year sentence for wounding when he fired a crossbow bolt at his partner's head.

He had also been behind a bomb hoax at Brent Cross Shopping Centre after having a row with staff in a C&A store.

Miss Alison Levitt, defending, said Torrance was an intelligent man who had a degree. But, the court heard, his life had been blighted by alcohol and substance abuse.

As a result of his addiction to butane gas, she said, he had virtually no memory of committing the offences.

Miss Levitt said Torrance's addictions had caused the break up of his relationship with the mother of his three daughters.

She said that when sober Torrance was a bright, intelligent man with an engaging personality. However, when drunk he was 'a menace'.

Jailing him for a total of two-and-a-half years the judge told him: 'It is a catalogue of offences which are extremely horrifying.'