YouTube prankster Danh Van Le jailed for nine months for bomb hoax
'That's the difference when a big company does it and when a small independent company does it'
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The co-founder of a YouTube "prankster" channel has been arrested for scaring the public with bomb hoaxes and staging mock burglaries.
Danh Van Le, who is one of the founders of online channel Trollstation, has been jailed for nine months after he filmed members of the public reacting to a suitcase with a ticking clock inside in London, according to BuzzFeed.
The stunt, which involved a 15-year-old boy opening the suitcase and then running away, was intended to mock the arrest of 14-year-old US schoolboy Ahmed Mohamed, whose homemade clock was mistaken for a bomb in the US last year.
But a member of the public phoned the police and the cameraman was sentenced to nine months in prison on one count of placing a hoax bomb with intent at the Inner London crown court.
The sentencing also included using threatening, insulting or abusive language during another prank video in the Tate and National Portrait Galleries, in which actors filmed by Van Le emulated an art heist.
Endrit Ferizoli, Trollstation's CEO, told BuzzFeed News that Van Le's sentencing was "pretty unfair".
"They had Jackie Chan blowing up a bus on a bridge and there were no legal ramifications for that," he said, referring to the film "The Foreigner" which sparked panic among some Londoners when it blew up in a controlled explosion on Lambeth Bridge.
"That's the difference when a big company does it and when a small independent company does it."
Known to fans as "DigiDan", the 31-year-old will reportedly continue to produce videos for Trollstation's 700,000 subscribers on his return from prison, according to BuzzFeed.
A similar case in Australia saw two brothers face charges after their videos of an Arab man leaving a suspicious-looking bag in shops went viral.
But the pair, known as the Jalal brothers, were later released on bail and allowed to continue to upload videos, according to The Age.