LONDON: Former AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd has received sentence of eight months in house arrest in the death threat case. The 61-year-old musician has plead guilty to threatening to kill his former employee, admitting to have offered large amounts of cash after asking to have the victim “taken out”, the Daily Express reported. The drummer, who had been out on bail since pleading guilty to the charges in April, could have faced up to seven years in prison but his lawyer had argued for the conviction to be set aside. New Zealand’s Tauranga District Court Judge Thomas Ingram said during the hearing that Rudd didn’t have much of a criminal history and posed a low risk of reoffending, adding but he had been found with a substantial amount of drugs. The whole things started in August 2014 when Rudd threw a party at his marina restaurant, Phil’s Place, to mark his solo album Head Job’s launch. However, he got angry over lack of security, and felt the launch hadn’t gone well, and later fired several employees, including the unnamed victim. About four weeks later, Rudd called an associate and told him he wanted the victim “taken out”, and had offered the person “$200,000, a motorbike, one of his cars or a house” supposedly as payment “for carrying out his earlier request”. The morning after, Rudd even called the victim directly, saying “I’m going to come over and kill you”. The band is currently using drummer Chris Slade for its Rock or Bust album tour, and it’s unclear if Rudd has a future with the Aussie music group.