A 65-year-old man has appeared before Blackburn magistrates charged in connection with a bomb threat made to a Whalley bank.

Clifford Fleming, of Billington Gardens, Billington, is charged with blackmail by making an unwarranted demand with menaces for £150,000 from Barclays bank on King Street.

The bank received a letter demanding the cash be placed in a bag and left in a specified place at a specified time.

The letter, which was hand delivered, said the bomb was already in place and warned it would be activated if the bank did not comply or if the police were contacted.

Fleming, whose solicitor, Graeme Parkinson, indicated would be entering a guilty plea, was sent on bail to Preston Crown Court on a date to be notified.