A MAN will appear in court today charged in connection with an alleged bomb hoax after a suspicious package was found in a bookmakers' shop.
The 20-year-old local man was arrested after the alert was raised by a customer at Coral Racing in Annfield Plain, near Stanley, following the discovery of a threatening note and, subsequently, the package at the Front Street premises, on Tuesday.
It led to the area being cordoned off and bomb disposal experts from the Royal Logistics Corp, at the Catterick Army base, in North Yorkshire, were summoned.
Following initial assessment they carried out a controlled detonation of the package, but it was later confirmed it was not classed as dangerous.
The man arrested in ensuing inquiries has been charged on allegations of blackmail and making a bomb hoax and he was to go before North Durham magistrates, sitting at Consett, today.
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