Financial planner Hilton Woolf sentenced over threat to blow up Sydney Airport

A financial planner threatened to “blow up” Sydney Airport during a heated fight with Qantas over lost luggage, a court has heard.

Financial planner Hilton Woolf at Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ Adam Yip

A Sydney financial planner threatened to “blow up” Sydney Airport during a heated fight with Qantas over lost luggage, a court has heard.

North Bondi man Hilton Woolf, who owns Eastbay Financial Services, admitted he had a “brain snap” when he yelled out the threat while his wife was on the phone to the airline’s call centre one afternoon in May this year.

He later said he had no intention of carrying out the attack and had been acting out of sheer frustration.

Documents tendered to Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday said Woolf and his wife had been on a trip to Johannesburg when Qantas lost Mrs Woolf’s luggage on the return journey.

The court heard she phoned the Qantas call centre about its return, with the recorded conversation growing more heated by the minute as Mrs Woolf began abusing staff and swearing at them out of frustration.

She has not been charged with any offence and is not accused of any wrongdoing.

Hilton Woolf leaves court in Sydney on Tuesday. Woolf made threats to blow up Sydney Airport while his wife was on the phone to the Qantas complaints department. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ Adam Yip

When she started sobbing on the phone, Woolf was heard to shout in the background of the call: “you f—kers, I will come and I’ll blow your f—king airport up”.

The Qantas staffer informed security of the threat at the end of the call, and the matter was referred to federal police.

The court heard detectives from the AFP attended Woolf’s home two days later, at which time he told them he knew why they were there and asked if it was about the phone call.

Woolf was charged with one count of threatening to destroy/damage/endanger the safety of a Commonwealth aerodrome, to which he pleaded guilty at his first court appearance in July.

Court documents said Woolf made “full and frank” admissions to having uttered the threat but said he had been acting out of frustration and had “no intention of actually blowing up Sydney Airport”.

Hilton Woolf. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ Adam Yip

In court on Tuesday, Woolf’s lawyer said her client accepted his behaviour had been “entirely inappropriate” but that he had not anticipated it would be heard by anyone on the other end of the phone.

“His outburst was provoked by sheer anger and frustration …. it was a brain snap, there was no intention behind it,” she said.

“It was entirely inappropriate, he unequivocally accepts that.”

She said Woolfe had no prior criminal record and friends had described him as a “model citizen” in testimonials before the court.

She asked for Woolf to be spared a conviction, however Magistrate Robert Williams rejected the submission, finding the offence was too serious not to warrant a permanent mark on his record.

“Any offending that puts in issue security at an airport, or any people or airplanes at the airport, must be discouraged,” he said.

Woolf was convicted of the offence and fined $1200.

The court heard the conviction - particularly for such an offence - may effect Woolfe’s ability to travel overseas in the future.