When snow fell across Britain earlier this year it brought travel chaos to millions, but for one man the legacy of our white winter lives on.

As the country ground to a halt most of us cussed under our breaths, but Paul Chambers vented his frustration online, by joking that he'd blow Doncaster’s Robin Hood airport "sky high" if his flight was delayed.

Although the airport didn’t treat his tweet as a credible bomb threat, the message was passed on to police who arrested Chambers in January.

The 26-year-old’s case came before Doncaster Magistrates Court this week and despite pleading not guilty to sending a menacing communication was convicted and ordered to pay £1,000.

Chambers is the latest Twitter user to slip up on the real-time social networking site, although he can take comfort from some of these high-profile gaffes:

• She might have hung onto her Bristol East seat but Kerry McCarthy, Labour’s media tsar, could face six months in prison or a £5,000 fine after she illegally published postal vote figures on Twitter before the final May 6 count. McCarthy boasted on the site that she had received more votes in the early batch of postal ballots and is now under investigation for a possible breach of electoral law.

• Another misguided Tweet came from a Labour MP, Sion Simon (who recently stepped down in Birmingham Erdington). Last April he used the site to post a “joke” about Susan Boyle, saying that she was to blame for swine flu.

“I’m not saying Susan Boyle caused swine flu. I’m just saying that nobody had swine flu, she sang on TV, people got swine flu,” read Simon’s Tweet.

His message came at a particularly insensitive time as it coincided with Gordon Brown announcing that two more Britons had been diagnosed with the disease.

• Tottenham striker, Darren Bent, directed a foul-mouthed rant at the club’s chairman, Daniel Levy, on Twitter, in July as he became increasingly frustrated at Spurs for dragging their heels over his transfer to Sunderland.

Bent was docked two weeks’ wages – estimated to be as much as £120,000.

• Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, has been accidentally following porn sites online, because of a setting on his Twitter account.

Rudd was embarrassed last week when it transpired he was following a bare-breasted, handcuffed woman, plus a plethora of other seedy Twitter users.

A spokesman for Mr Rudd admitted a Twitter automated programme made the PM’s account automatically follow those who followed him.

• Aussie batsman, Phillip Hughes, told his followers he’d been dropped from the Ashes team in the third test before it needed to be announced.

Australian management wasn’t happy as this let England know what to expect ahead of the match at Edgbaston, which resulted in a draw.

• Aussies might be the most prone to errors of Twitter judgement. Actor, Hugh Jackman, who was forced to apologise to the nation last year when he got the name of the Sydney Opera House wrong.

The X Men star, born in Sydney but living in LA, updated his Twitter feed with a message reading: “Having lunch on the harbor across from the Opera Centre. Loving life!”

Not only was he criticised for getting Australia’s most iconic building wrong, but he was also lambasted for his American spelling.

Jackman later apologised and admitted he’d employed someone else to Tweet for him.

• Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, was handed a $25,000 fine by the NBA after he criticised referees on Twitter during a game. His response read: “Can’t say nobody makes money from Twitter now. The NBA does!”