28 April 2023 , 12:12
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A nuisance 999 caller from Leeds has been sentenced to 12 weeks in prison after she repeatedly phoned the police without good reason.
West Yorkshire Police were called almost 40 times within just two hours by time-waster Sarah Coates, 48, on Sunday, April 23.
She admitted she repeatedly called the emergency services for no reason.
Superintendent Mick Rutter said: “Callers like this who misuse these services can delay us in answering real emergencies.
“This was a persistent wasting of police time and we will take action where it is appropriate to do so.”
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Police received a huge 36 bogus 999 calls between 6.24am and 8.11am from Coates.
Coates was sentenced to 12 weeks behind bars (Getty Images/iStockphoto)More of her calls to 999 did not get connected to West Yorkshire Police that morning, BT confirmed.
Coates was sentenced to 12 weeks behind bars at Leeds magistrates on Monday, April 24, and ordered to take part in rehabilitation activity.
She was also ordered to pay court costs of £85 and a victim surcharge of £154.
West Yorkshire Police recently relaunched its campaign asking the public to ‘help us to help you’ by using emergency and non-emergency numbers appropriately, and making use of online contact options.
Meanwhile in Sussex, a man was recently jailed for 39 months after persistently calling both police and ambulance services more than 7,000 times.
The serial caller, Roger Jackson, 77, was continually abusive to the emergency services' personnel.
Jackson, from Horsham, wasted over 400 hours of the contact officers’ time since September 2020 and pleaded guilty at a hearing at Lewes Crown Court on Friday, January 27.
Sussex Police tried to crack down on the most persistent prank callers, reportedly halving the total hoax calls in the last five years from 16,016 a year to 8,487.
Jackson was warned multiple times about the volume of his persistent calls prior to being arrested last year, according to Sussex Police Force Persistent Caller lead, Sarah-Louise Gliddon.
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Ms Gliddon said: “For every genuine caller waiting to speak to us, there may be one of these callers in front of them such as Roger Jackson.”
Last year, the Mirror reported hoax 999 emergency calls cost £6.5million in waste during the previous five years.
South East Coast Ambulance Service Frequent Caller Lead and Paramedic, Nathan Daxner, said: “Jackson subjected our call centre staff to repeated vile verbal abuse on a daily basis and the impact of his actions should not be underestimated.”
Daxner said: “Just one malicious and false call puts lives at risk by diverting our attention and resources away from people in our communities who genuinely need our help.”