Police hunt hoaxcaller (From Warrington Guardian)

Police hunt hoaxcaller

EMERGENCY paramedics in Crewe have called in the police to catch a persistent hoax caller who is putting lives at risk.

Last week two bogus calls were made in the space of four days requesting emergency responses to Edleston Road.

In both cases an ambulance with two fully qualified paramedics attended only to arrive at the scene to find it was a hoax.

On February 2 the caller requested an emergency response to attend to a 22-year-old man who had fallen and injured himself.

This was followed last Thursday by a second call to attend to a man with serious burns.

Emergency medical despatch operator Nick Blair took both calls.

He said: "On both occasions lives have been put at risk. "Fortunately there have been no serious impacts of the hoax calls but the threat exists nevertheless.

"By bringing the police on board to work with us to track this individual down we are taking positive action to avoid any further occurrences.

"I would remind people that this form of reckless behaviour will not be tolerated by the ambulance service and we will do everything within our power to stamp it out."

Chief Inspector of Crewe Police, Robin Crorie, said: "It is very distressing to know that our colleagues in the ambulance service, whose resources literally mean life or death for the public in Cheshire, are suffering from persistent hoax calls from someone who doesn't seem to understand how gravely irresponsible he is being.

"We must stop him to prevent a tragedy - our first priority is to ensure that ambulances are only sent to those in genuine need of urgent medical assistance."