Man behind siege in WA town dodges jail

A 56-year-old man has been spared an immediate jail term after he sparked a four-hour siege that put a town in WA's south into lock-down.

Robin David Gray barricaded himself inside a small bus outside an Esperance shopping centre on April 7 and made threatening statements, prompting police to close roads and evacuate nearby businesses.

Gray, of no fixed address, was sentenced in Kalgoorlie Magistrates Court on Monday to seven months imprisonment, suspended for 12 months.