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Emergency phone lines bombarded with hoax calls

Friday 30 December, 2011

By Anthony Hill

Teenager could be jailed for making fake 999 calls at Christmas.

Despite the launch of a non-emergency telephone number, there are still millions of needless calls from people dialling 999.

Over recent months, a new 101 service has been rolled-out across most of Britain. The public is being urged to choose this number over 999 for reporting less serious incidents and non-urgent matters to the police. These may include stolen cars, damaged property or drug dealing.

But not all inappropriate calls come from people mistakenly dialling the emergency number. A teenage girl from Cambridgeshire is currently awaiting sentence after admitting to deliberately making 756 hoax calls to 999 operators over the Christmas weekend.

Kerry Ann Moate, 18, from Little Paxton, was arrested at home after police traced her telephone calls. Magistrates have warned she could face jail, particularly since she has a history of similar offences.

Superintendent Paul Fullwood, of Cambridgeshire police, said: “The sheer volume of malicious calls was extremely disruptive to the force at a time of year that is always busy for police. Every time someone misuses the 999 they are potentially putting others lives at risk.”

According to data published recently, just one in four 999 calls received by police last year was classed as an emergency. This fell to one in five for Britain’s biggest force, the Metropolitan Police, where fewer than 400,000 of two million calls required an emergency response.

Earlier this month, South West Ambulance condemned a man who had dialled 999 to say he had run out of toilet paper. He assured the operator it was “an emergency”, but the service’s medical director, Dr Andy Smith, said every call to 999 is presumed by staff to be life threatening.

“Our call takers go through the process with callers, and that will take time. They could be missing a call that's a genuine emergency,” he said.

Photo by Ell Brown