A 44-year-old German man has been jailed for three-and-a-half years for trying to extort money by running a bomb hoax scam. The man - who used the aliases Jonathan Drake and Vincent Baxter - sent out 39 emails to companies in Germany and Austria, threatening to blow up buildings or kill people unless he was paid.

The doctor's assistant was stranded in Thailand without any cash after his girlfriend dumped him. Using an internet cafe he sent out the threatening emails demanding between €5,000 (£3,400) and €10,000 (£6,800) to pay for his flight home, AFP reports.

He was arrested in Germany on his return after police traced his emails, and he was jailed by a court in Stuttgart. ®

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