A criminal with a long record for serious offences caused alarm when he threatened to kill himself by blowing up his flat with a homemade bomb, a court heard.

After police went to Ian Hendrie’s Dartford address they found six bottles and jars containing plastic nails and screws in a wheelie bin.

Maidstone Crown Court heard the 55-year-old churchgoer was at a drug and alcohol treatment centre in Gravesend on October 20 last year when he told a member of staff he intended to make a bomb.

Later that evening officers went to his home in Coleridge Road to carry out a welfare check on him.

“He allowed them in,” said prosecutor Trevor Wright. “He told them he wasn’t feeling terribly well and wanted police to shoot him. He explained he intended to rig up an explosive device in the flat in order to kill himself.”

Hendrie claimed he learnt about explosives when he served in the French Foreign Legion in the 1980s.

He showed officers doorbells he said he was going to use to detonate the device. He said he would throw them in dustbins outside.

It was then an officer checked the wheelie bins and found the bottles and jars containing nails and screws.

Mr Wright said Hendrie was taken to be “checked over” at Darent Valley Hospital, where he became agitated and wanted to hurt himself. He elbowed an officer in the groin.

He later said he wanted police officers to shoot him in the head.

“He said the whole thing was a cry for help,” said Mr Wright. “He accepted there was heightened national security and apologised for his actions.

“He said he wasn’t a terrorist. He drank over a bottle of whisky and took too much medication.

"You caused a great number of people enormous concern. The police were put to a great deal of trouble because of your completely irresponsible behaviour" - Judge Adele Williams, to Hendrie

Hendrie had 29 previous convictions for 65 offences. They included kidnapping and false imprisonment, aggravated burglary and robbery in 1990 when he was jailed for seven years.

Jailing Hendrie for 22 months, Judge Adele Williams said: “You caused a great number of people enormous concern. The police were put to a great deal of trouble because of your completely irresponsible behaviour.

“Most concerning was that the police found bottles containing nails. All this because you were having mental health difficulties and not taking the help available to you.

“You have a very bad record for all manner of crimes. This was grossly irresponsible behaviour and can only lead to an immediate sentence off imprisonment.”

He was sentenced to 16 months for the bomb hoax, four months for assault on police and two months for criminal damage, all consecutive.

On hearing he was not going to be freed, Hendrie left the dock to return to the cells before the judge had finished sentencing and muttered: “Shove it up your ****.”

After the sentencing, investigating officer Detective Constable Shona Ross said: "Hendrie claimed to have made bombs, hoping the information would be passed to Kent Police.

"When officers attended his address he directed them to the bottles, at no point did they present a danger to the public.

"Upon arrest, he admitted it was a cry of help and that he didn’t fully appreciate the seriousness of his claim or the consequences.

"Hoax reports are a waste of police time and divert resources away from people who genuinely need help. In short, don’t do it."