An Oxfordshire man who called the Chancellor a ‘Nazi’ and warned him in an email that his house would be ‘on fire’ confessed to being a ‘bit of a plonker’.

Robert Fairchild, 38, sent the threatening missive to the newly-appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt in October – after growing angry about the energy crisis. The email was opened by a member of staff in his office on October 19 and passed on to the MP.

The East Challow man wrote in his email: “If you want to f*** up [our] lives we will f*** up yours. Your house will be on fire this winter you Nazi c***.”

He claimed Mr Hunt was a ‘fool’ if he thought people would let him ‘get away with what you are planning’. Fairchild made bizarre references to the investment firm Blackrock and spoke of Mr Hunt’s ‘CCP [Chinese Community Party] wife’; the Chancellor’s wife, Lucia, is from the Shaanxi province of China.

The email was passed on to the police, the magistrates’ court heard. The email address from which the message was sent was linked to an IP address that led police officers to Fairchild’s home.

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Interviewed by officers, the defendant accepted sending the email and candidly confessed to having been a ‘bit of a plonker’. The threat would not have been carried out, he said, and claimed he ‘wouldn’t hurt a fly’.

The defendant, of Hedge Hill Road, East Challow, pleaded guilty last month to sending an offensive message by a public communications network.

On Monday (February 20), the deputy chief magistrate Tan Ikram imposed 16 weeks’ imprisonment suspended for a year and a half. He must complete 80 hours of unpaid work.

Following Monday’s hearing, Crown Prosecution Service lawyer Aamir Barrett said: “Robert Fairchild’s words were offensive, with threats of physical violence. He claimed he is not a violent man by nature, and that he was simply angry about the ongoing energy crisis.

“There is no excuse for sending anyone online abuse. Regardless of whether he intended to follow through on his threats, Fairchild undoubtedly intended to cause serious distress to Mr Hunt.

“Fairchild made no attempt to hide his identity when he sent his message.

“It is easy to think that, because we are often faceless behind a keyboard, we can say what we like and remain beyond the realms of facing justice.

“However, no one is above the law, and we will always prosecute cases like these whenever our legal test is met.”