Fire service hit by 3,700 hoax calls

HOAX calls are costing fire services in Scotland hundreds of thousands of pounds with almost 4,000 calls made in 2009.

Statistics revealed under freedom of information laws show that the total was 3,715 with four people jailed for persistently offending.

Although hoax calls have decreased in recent years, safety chiefs condemned perpetrators for wasting hundreds of thousands of pounds and hundreds of working hours. Grampian services alone last year spent more than 35,000 on dealing with hoax calls.

Fire and rescue safety manager David Lockhart said: " The number of hoax calls is still far too high. These figures are really disappointing, and every one of them is a waste of our crews' time and energy."

Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Service received 1,835 false malicious calls between January and December, followed by 639 calls to Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service. Highlands Fire and Rescue Service dealt with 228 hoax calls, 189 calls were made to Central Fire and Rescue, 156 to Grampian, 140 to Tayside, 104 to Dumfries and Galloway and 93 to Fife.