POLICE have said the placing of a suspicious device in a block of flats on the day of the General Election last year was a deliberate attempt to cause panic.

Their comments comes after Peter Conoboy, 48, pleaded guilty at Glasgow’s High Court yesterday and is due to be sentenced next month. It comes after police were called to the Glen Tower block of flats in Motherwell on December 12 following reports that a suspicious device had been found. Officers placed a cordon around the building and evacuated residents before a controlled explosion was carried out as a precaution. The device was later found to be non-viable.

Superintendent Andy Edwards of Lanarkshire police division said: “The placing of this device was a deliberate attempt to cause panic and disruption to both the residents of Glen Tower, who had to be evacuated in the middle of the night, and the wider community on what was the date of the General Election when this incident meant their polling station had to be moved.

“Yesterday’s guilty plea and conviction is a clear message that this type of behaviour will not be tolerated in our community. Police Scotland takes every report of suspicious packages seriously and any incident will be dealt with safely and robustly investigated.”