Woman made hoax bomb calls to stop boyfriend's deportation

Elizabeth Mack, 57, of Wolsey Road, agreed to make the calls during a conversation with her then lover Natig Karimov, who was being deported back to his native Azerbaijan.

Isleworth Crown Court was told the calls resulted in the plane being grounded and the flight delayed for 50 minutes on October 30 last year.

Howard Tobias, prosecuting, said: "Two calls were made to the BAA flight centre in Glasgow just after 1.15pm and the other just after 2pm, the caller being the same person. The claim was that there was a bomb on board the BMI flight to Azerbaijan.

"The police attended the flight and they discovered that there was a man on board the flight called Natig Karimov, who was being removed from the country."

The court was told he had been allowed to speak on the telephone to his then girlfriend, Mack, and the pair had conspired to stop the flight.

Mack was arrested at her home and admitted she had made the calls and had felt "under considerable pressure to do so" having exhausted all the legal options.

The personal assistant had met Karimov and the pair "struck up a relationship," defence counsel Nathan Rasiah said.

He added: "She now recognises that there was a controlling, manipulative side to his personality and she was besotted."

But in July the pair, who dated for three years, discovered Karimov was to be deported as the Home Office had ruled he had no ties to the UK.

Mr Rasiah said on the day of the hoax calls, Mack had been "a bag of nerves" was drinking and had appeared close a breakdown.

Mack pleaded guilty to two counts of communicating false information with intent.