A 39-year-old contractor from Ħamrun called the police threatening to blow up the courts on five days he was due to appear there, a magistrate heard yesterday.

Police Inspector Daniel Zammit claimed Richard Cuschieri told police about a bomb at the Law Courts building on March 16 and 26, April 19, May 31 and last Monday when, sources said, the man was due to appear in court over a pending fraud case.

Mr Cuschieri was charged with five bomb hoaxes, with sources saying he was being investigated for another two.

He was also charged with lodging false reports to the police and causing fear of violence.

Wearing two thick gold neck-laces and a blue sleeveless top showing the tattoos on his arms, Mr Cuschieri, who was born in Australia, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Objecting to a request for bail, Inspector Zammit said the police feared he would commit the same crime again as he had several pending criminal and civil cases.

He said he was not concerned about tampering with evidence as this was mostly technical and could not be tampered with.

The calls were made from his mobile phone and from telephone booths, the inspector added.

Sophisticated mobile location devices were used as part of the investigations into frequent bomb hoaxes at the law courts. This frequency also bothered Magistrate Carol Peralta, who quoted this justification to refuse bail.

“Since these (bomb hoaxes) are happening continuously and are causing alarm in the regular functioning of the law courts, so much so that days are wasted because of this alarm, at this stage I turn down the request for bail,” he said.

Lawyer Beppe Fenech Adami appeared for the accused.