Drive to stamp out prank 999 calls

Last year, more than half the five million calls made to the emergency services from BT phone boxes were false or malicious calls with 510 in East Sussex alone.

Research conducted by BT Payphones showed that while malicious calls are a problem for all the emergency services, it was the fire service that was most affected.

Brian Cole, senior fire safety officer from the East Sussex Fire Brigade, said: "Malicious calls reduce the efficiency of any fire service, because obviously fire engines cannot be in two places at once. If crews are responding to hoax calls, they are not available to answer genuine calls for help. Any delay in attending an emergency could mean the difference between life and death."

BT has invited individual fire brigades across the country to nominate the worst affected telephone boxes in their areas, which will then be fitted with eye-catching posters warning against the dangers of hoax calls.

To check the success of the campaign, BT Payphones will closely monitor the volume of hoax calls from phone boxes once the warning posters are in place.

This autumn, BT will repeat its Kiosk Kate education programme, which ran last year. Under the scheme, primary schools host a series of presentations from BT Payphones' engineers.

Kiosk Kate is a cartoon character used to get children thinking about the dangers of making hoax calls.

Malcolm Newing, director of BT Payphones, said: "East Sussex isn't the worst area in the country for hoax calls but the figures are worryingly high.

"Most false 999 calls are made by children and although the culprits are generally in their teens, we're convinced that getting the safety message across to younger children will prevent them getting involved in this kind of activity when they get older."

"We've already held a trial of the campaign with Kent Fire Brigade, which significantly reduced the number of hoax calls in that area.

"We hope that this will be the case right across the country with our nationwide programme."