A BOY claiming to be terrorist Osama bin Laden made a phone call to police, warning that there was a bomb under Selby Abbey.

The bored 13-year-old made three hoax calls to the emergency services over two nights, a court heard.

The hoaxes had dramatic effects, including:

* police sealing off a Selby street

* armed response units called to the town from across North Yorkshire

* firefighters searching for a non-existent man trapped in a building

* ambulance crews on stand-by for a shooting victim, said prosecutor Vivienne Walsh.

"These are obviously, in today's climate, extremely serious allegations, not only in the terms of anxiety caused to people, but also resources," she told York Youth Court.

Today the Selby boy was awaiting sentence after pleading guilty to a bomb hoax charge and two charges of making hoax phone calls.

The bomb charge carries a maximum jail term of seven years for an adult or a two-year detention and training order for a juvenile.

Youth justices said the offences were so serious they wanted to put the boy under curfew while a pre-sentence report was prepared.

But then defence solicitor Ruth Gill told them the boy made the calls on a mobile phone from his home while his mother slept upstairs.

Mrs Walsh said that in the early hours of October 17 the boy phoned police claiming that a man had been shot in Hardy Street.

Officers spent 17 hours of police time dealing with the "incident", including sealing off the street and moving armed response teams into the area. Ambulance crews were put on stand-by.

While police were busy, the boy called the fire brigade claiming that a man was trapped in another street and firefighters responded.

But both calls were false.

The next night, the boy phoned North Yorkshire Police and claimed to be Osama bin Laden, said Mrs Walsh. He added that there was a bomb under Selby Abbey. But a control room operator recognised the boy's phone number as the one that had made the calls on October 17 and the 13-year-old was arrested, carrying the phone.

"He fully admitted making the calls because he was bored and had nothing to do," said Mrs Walsh.

For the boy, Mrs Gill called for investigations into "what was going through his mind when he made the calls".

Another, older and more experienced offender was with the child when he phoned the emergency services and the boy may have been trying to impress him.

Updated: 15:28 Wednesday, October 31, 2001