Concern over hoax calls to police

Police in Cheshire are warning of the dangers of making hoax calls following a spate of incidents in the last month.

The force has revealed that a total of 58 hoax calls were made to its operators from various telephone boxes around Widnes.

Resources were not deployed for any of the calls as the majority involved the caller staying silent on the line.

However, two of the calls were logged as being "abusive". Hoax callers face prosecution if caught.

Zero tolerance

According to police, the hoax calls made over the past month were carried out at various times of the day and night from at least 20 different phone boxes across the town.

One phone box has been targeted 22 times.

Sgt Fiona Murphy said: "Wasting the time of the emergency services could cost lives because the emergency services might not be available to respond to real emergencies if they are attending hoax calls.

"We want to send out a warning that we will not tolerate this sort of behaviour in Widnes and positive action will be taken.

"If anyone has any information about who could be making these calls then please do come forward.

"It could be one person or a number of people responsible for making these calls. But whoever it is they need to realise the impact of what they are doing."

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