Two men were arrested on Thursday (September 14th) after making a series of hoax 999 calls which included one to the Coastguard claiming that people were trapped in mud on a beach near Burnham-On-Sea.
Overnight on Wednesday (September 13th) and into the early hours of Thursday, around 12 ’emergency’ calls were made to police with a variety of claims being made, including a distress call claiming that people were stuck in the mud and that a friend had been stabbed.
Additional calls were also made to other emergency services, with some of the calls being abusive and threatening to police communications operators.
Police quickly tracked the locations of the calls and at 4am a 17-year-old youth and 23-year-old man were arrested at a supermarket car park in Street.
Both males – who are from the Bridgwater area – were arrested on suspicion of wasting police time and taken into custody at Yeovil Police Station.
The 17-year-old remains in custody, while the 23-year-old – who was also arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer – has been given police bail pending further enquiries.
Somerset East duty Insp Jan Bebbington said: “The actions of these two individuals took up a considerable amount of police time and diverted police officers from other duties which could have been saving people’s lives. People should only ever ring 999 if they are in a life or death situation and we will proactively deal with people who abuse this service. In this case, around 12 calls were made, some of which were very distressing for staff to deal with.”
Force spokesman Dan Mountain added: “The calls had suggested that people were stuck in the mud on the beach somewhere between Weston and Burnham-On-Sea. This could have prompted the call-outs of multiple emergency services. Rest assured that we will track down people who make hoax 999 calls like this.”
If you ever require police in a non-emergency you should contact 0845 4567000.
