A GAMBLER who blew thousands of pounds on an online poker site threatened to shoot people who worked there unless they handed over £31,000 to clear his losses.

Michael Gallagher, from Redcar, east Cleveland, sent accusatory emails to the head office of the company, on the Isle of Man, which culminated with the chilling warning on May 25.

The following day, Gallagher, 35, sent a further email apologising for making the gun threat, insisting he did not mean it and explaining that he was drunk when he sent the message.

Gallagher was initially charged with blackmail, but as he was about to go on trial, he pleaded guilty to an alternative offence of sending an electronic communication conveying a threat.

He will be sentenced next month after Judge George Moorhouse, sitting at Teesside Crown Court, ordered a probation report so he could learn more about Gallagher’s background.

The prosecution’s case is that Gallagher, of Tees Road, Redcar, signed up to the online site in June last year, and by May of this year had run up losses of $29,700 – about £18,800.

He said he would visit the headquarters of the company with a sawn-off shotgun and kill as many people as he could if he was not given $50,000 (£31,000). Gallagher’s lawyer, Rachel Dyson, asked Judge Moorhouse to sentence him straight away because he was anxious to learn what his fate was going to be, but the judge refused the request.

He bailed Gallagher until early next month, after telling Miss Dyson: “I think a report is required because of the very nature of the threat.”