A Thirroul disability pensioner who threatened to blow up buildings housing staff from a debt collection agency that was chasing him for money has been put on a good behaviour bond and fined.
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Daniel Scott, 38, told police he thought the phone calls were from scammers, but admitted even then his response had been over-the-top.
Court documents tendered to Wollongong Local Court this week said debt collections agency Australian Recoveries and Mercantile Agents (ARMA), a national company with a large employee base, had received a file from a client in which Scott was named as owing money from a motor vehicle accident in 2018.
The ARMA had attempted to contact Scott with no success, so began using its automated phone service, which is designed to regularly dial people who owe money.
The calls, once received, allow the caller to speak with a company representative.
The court heard Scott left an "irate and aggressive" voice mail message after receiving one of the automated calls on his mobile phone on the evening of February 20.
In it, he threatened to "blow up your f--king buildings and murder your f--king staff" unless the company stopped calling him.
He left another message an hour later, in which he tried to disguise his voice as Middle Eastern.
"I will ruin your business - if you ever f--k with me again I will come and cut your throats," he raged.
"I will f--king bomb your building, Bankstown, Melbourne, Adelaide, now cancel your f--king auto dial you f--king c--ts."
The matter was reported to police amid fears for the safety of staff.
Scott was arrested in April and charged with two counts of using a carriage service to threaten serious harm, to which he pleaded guilty.
He told a Community Corrections worker he made the threats after getting frustrated with the continuous phone calls.
"I thought if I pretended to be a crazy person they would take me off the list," he said.
In court this week, Magistrate Michael Stoddart accepted Scott had no intentions of carrying out any of the threats, but said it was natural people would take such threats seriously and become fearful.
"Is that an appropriate way to talk to anyone?" he said when Scott reiterated his belief that it was scammers on the other end of the line.
"You could have just blocked the number.
"If there was anything else on your record like this I'd be imposing a jail sentence today."
He placed Scott on a two-year good-behaviour bond, with a $500 fine if he breached it, and a further fine of $2,000.