A Bradford police station had to be partially evacuated after a teenager threatened to blow it up, a Court heard.

Matthew Dutton, 19, who had a history of making nuisance and bomb hoax calls to emergency services, was sentenced to two years’ youth custody yesterday after he admitted communicating false information to police.

Bradford Crown Court was told Dutton had received an 18-month custodial sentence last September for similar offences of making false communications and threatening to damage property, but had been released from detention in November.

Prosecutor Emma Downing said that at 10.35pm on Saturday, April 23 this year, Dutton, of Ewart Street, Great Horton, sent a text message to Trafalgar House police station.

It read: “Just to let you know that the police station is going to be blown up in four hours’ time. You have four hours until it goes. Bye, bye, Trafalgar House.”

Miss Downing said the police station was partially closed and the front inquiry desk and custody area had to be emptied. A search, involving a significant number of officers, was made of the station and surrounding streets.

Miss Downing said a suspicious box was found on wasteland 200 metres from the police station and an Army bomb disposal team was called. A controlled explosion was carried out on the box, which had nothing to do with Dutton.

The prosecutor said Dutton had been given a community order in April last year for offences of persistently making false communications, threatening to damage property and threatening behaviour.

She said the offences for which he was given an 18-month sentence involved making five calls to police from a public phone box and making false claims he had seen drug deals taking place, people being assaulted and an arson.

He also threatened to set fire to Trafalgar House police station and he also left an envelope at the station’s public inquiry desk with a message inside saying the station was going to be blown up.

Dutton’s barrister, Bronia Hartley, said he had had a turbulent childhood and it was not surprising he should have gone on to exhibit attention-seeking behaviour. But he now recognised the stupidity of what he had done and had a positive side, having worked voluntarily at a Bradford charity shop for two years.

Judge Robert Bartfield told him: “You did it, I suspect, because you were bored and thought it would be something by which you could make an impact – and you did.”

Judge Bartfield said the defendant remained a bright and friendly young man with potential.

But he added: “My first role is to protect the community.”

He said the police were going to have some respite from him.