A HOAX suicide bomber today spoke of the moment he headed for a Nelson mosque with a device strapped to his waist.

But today the "angry young man" at the centre of incident insisted he wasn't a racist and had been trying to pull off a publicity stunt.

Burnley magistrates heard how Jonathan Denzil Metcalfe, 31, claimed he had a device strapped to his waist and went and sat outside the Pendle Street mosque.

Lancashire Police were not notified of the threat for an hour but called in about 50 officers with a chief inspector at the helm after being alerted by Scotland Yard, the court was told.

Magistrates heard how Metcalfe had wanted the glory of being arrested in front of the TV cameras to get publicity for his "strong beliefs," but instead the attention seeker now faced the prospect of up to two years behind bars.

He had struck after rowing with Pendle Borough Council over council tax, the court was told.

Metcalfe, who claimed he was not a racist, was committed on bail for sentence to Burnley Crown Court. The defendant, of Lee Road, Nelson, admitted communicating false information about a bomb hoax on September 15.

Speaking from his Nelson home today, the former Edge End High School pupil, said: "I am not a racist, I never have been."

After travelling the world and visiting places like Zambia, India, South America and Egypt, he said Great Britain was overstretched by the amount of immigrants coming. And the part-time window cleaner, added: "I am not sorry for what I have done but I wish I had gone about it in a different way.

"I don't want to go to prison but realise what I did was wrong and I have to face the consequences, which are quite daunting.

"This was my way of fighting for what I believe in . It was a stupid way but towns like Nelson and Brierfield need to be multi-racial. Instead they are ghetto-ised. I had been in dispute with the council about an amount of £700 which the council were trying to make me pay.

"I was not in employment at the time after losing my job as an IT sales manager. I didn't carry out the stunt because of this, it was more to make a point about how our country can't cope with the amount of people coming into this country.

"My mum is shocked and upset by what has happened and my dad thinks I am an idiot for doing this, which I am sorry for."

Mercedah Jabbari, prosecuting, told the court Metcalfe gave his name to the BBC in London and after the call he went and sat outside the mosque for an hour before going home. The duty manger at the BBC alerted the local police, officers listened to a recording of the call and notified Scotland Yard, who then got in touch with Lancashire Police.

A chief inspector was put in charge of the incident and eight police officers were deployed at the mosque, with another 43 involved in the operation. The defendant was arrested by detectives and made no comment.

Rachel Adamson, defending, said Metcalfe's beliefs regarding the Asian community may indicate some measure of risk.

The court heard he genuinely thought when he phoned the BBC that they would be interested in the publicity and he had glorified thoughts of being arrested while on television.

Miss Adamson said it beggared belief it took the message about the threat so long to reach Lancashire Police. But when it did, they acted straight away.

She added: "The defendant says there is a difference between prejudice and racism. I am sure the community at large would find that difficult to accept. He denies any link to any far-right political party."