Nuisance 999 calls cost millions

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Emergency services are called out unnecessarily on a regular basis

Non-emergency and hoax calls are costing emergency services in the Thames Valley area millions every year, a BBC investigation has found.

The police force said that of the 360,000 emergency calls to them every year, 273,000, about 75%, were inappropriate.

The fire services said each false alarm they are deployed to costs £2,000.

Ambulance services in the area are also affected. Last year, they received nearly 5,000 nuisance 999 calls.

In the last 12 months, the Buckinghamshire Fire Service received 454 false alarms, 366 in Wiltshire and in Oxfordshire there were 193.

We've been to people who were distressed because they'd lost their bank card Phil Brown, South Central Ambulance Service

Suzanne Connolly from Buckinghamshire Fire Service said: "We send them a mobile text message to their phone indicating that we have received a hoax call from them.

"That indicates that they should not be doing it again, that we do have the number listed, and should any further calls be received from that number then we do take it one step further and have the phone disconnected."

Phil Brown, from South Central Ambulance Service, said there are some unbelievable reasons people give for dialling 999.

"We were recently called to a gentleman who'd been to A&E, he'd been given an injection, and 30 minutes later he called us from home because his injection site was sore," he said.

"We've been to people who were distressed because they'd lost their bank card, and I've even been to someone with a paper cut".

Legislation was brought in six years ago to give the courts powers to punish hoax callers with fines up to £5,000 and up to six months in prison.

A BBC investigation has only been able to find evidence of one prosecution in the whole of the Thames Valley.

Other examples of the misuse of the system include people who have lost their keys, do not have enough money for a taxi home and one caller even dialled 999 to complain that he had been waiting too long for his meal in a restaurant, it is reported.

Police said they were working on "new ways" to deal with the problem.