Ocho Rios bomb prankster fined $1 million

Chevon Flowers, the 25-year-old man who recorded himself issuing a bomb threat in Ocho Rios, St Ann, and demanding a ransom, was on Thursday fined $1 million.

Failure to pay the sum will see the convict serving nine months in prison.

The sentence was handed down by Senior Parish Court Judge Desiree Alleyne in the St Catherine Parish Court.

Flowers, a resident of Old Harbour, St Catherine, was only sentenced by the judge on the charge of malicious communication despite also pleading guilty to creating public mischief, as the judge said the charges were relatively the same. 

The prosecution made no order relative to the charge of extortion, to which Flowers had previously pleaded not guilty.

The police said about 9am on June 4, the operator of a service station at a major commercial complex in Ocho Rios received a message that a bomb was planted at the location. A video was subsequently shared on a social media platform in which an individual, later identified as Flowers, claimed that a bomb was at the service station.

He also demanded $20 million.

The police were contacted and several units responded, along with the constabulary’s Bomb Squad, the Jamaica Defence Force, and the Jamaica Fire Brigade.

Traffic was subsequently diverted from the area, and the location and surrounding businesses were thoroughly checked, but no explosive was found.

Following a return to normality, the police put out a press release in which it said the bomb threat had led to significant disruptions in commercial activities in the town, and placed undue stress on the residents there.

Flowers later claimed responsibility for the threat via social media platform TikTok, presenting the matter as having been a ‘prank’.

Flowers was tracked down and arrested in Old Harbour a day after the chaos that gripped Ocho Rios, which reportedly resulted in businesses losing millions of dollars in the resort town.

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