Man must pay £90 after making five 999 nuisance calls

A man who was arrested after allegedly calling the police on 999 five times to complain about the NHS has been handed a £90 penalty notice.

A 60-year-old man was arrested on Monday, March 30, after allegedly making five phone calls to the Northumbria Police’s emergency number in 24 hours to complain to the NHS.

The calls were not deemed a genuine emergency by officers, with the caller instead complaining to call handlers about the NHS amid the ongoing Coronavirus outbreak.

Despite being warned against misusing the police’s telecommunication system, the advice appeared to fall on deaf ears.

As a result, the man from Sunderland was arrested on suspicion of malicious communication offences and has now been handed with a £90 penalty notice by police officers investigating the calls.

Chief Superintendent Neil Hutchison said: “The majority of people have responded positively to the advice we’ve given and have only used 999 in a genuine emergency and made in in good faith. However, there are some occasions when individuals abuse the 999 number and bombard us with nuisance calls.

“Especially at this time given the increased demand on all of us, the last thing we want is for people to have to wait on the phone to speak to one of our call handlers – but this type of behaviour has an inevitable impact on how quickly other emergency calls are answered.

“I would therefore like to reiterate that important message – only ring 999 in an emergency, and anyone who does abuse that service can expect to be dealt with robustly.”