A MAN responsible for a shipyard bomb hoax that led to thousands of staff being evacuated from the site has been jailed for nearly two years.

Royal Navy engineer Michael Turnbull made a phone call to the site alleging there was a bomb onboard one of the Astute submarines.

A total of 1,700 staff were sent home after fears a bomb had been planted inside Devonshire Dock Hall.

BAE bosses later revealed that, after a thorough search of four boats, they believed the scare to be a hoax.

Appearing at Preston Crown Court, Turnbull was sentenced to a total of 21 months behind bars.

The 33-year-old previously pleaded guilty to two counts of communicating information 'you knew or believed to be false with the intention of inducing in that person or any other person a false belief that a bomb was present in a submarine'.

The incident happened on April 10 2019.

In a hearing at South Cumbria Magistrates’ Court last year, prosecutor Lee Dacre said the incident put production at BAE Systems back eight days and government ministers as well as the Royal Navy had been keeping track of events on the day.

He said all the boats had to have critical systems quickly shutdown.

“It caused an eight-day delay to what is a critical national security asset,” Mr Dacre said.

Police and paramedics were called to the yard at around 9.20am on the day in question.

Staff starting shifts at 4pm were able to begin works as normal later in the day.

"Our first priority is always the safety of employees, the site and local residents so in accordance with our emergency procedures, we made the decision to release personnel from the DDC earlier today," a spokesman for BAE Systems said at the time.

Reacting to the sentence, Barrow Island councillor Allison Johnston said the incident would have been frightening for people living nearby.

"They are sitting right in the middle of the shipyard," she said.

"A bomb is quite scary for any resident.

"He was potentially endangering people's lives.

"It's an unfortunate incident for all involved.

"I'm sure he didn't expect a prison sentence."

Cllr Johnston said the prison sentence passed seemed 'fair'.

BAE launched its fifth Astute submarine HMS Anson earlier this year.

A further two boats are under construction at the shipyard, while work on Dreadnought class submarines is also taking place.