999, What Is Your Hoax?
999 should only be called in an emergency. Yet some, it appears, are more interested in a little bit of amusement for themselves:
A judge has hit out at his “astonishingly limited” sentencing powers after he was unable to jail a teenager whose hoax 999 call led to a woman’s death.
Ian Paterson, 17, called the fire brigade on June 29 because he was “bored”, and reported a fake warehouse fire “for a laugh”. (The Telegraph)
Unfortunately, on the way to this non-existent fire, a fire engine collided with a car, killing one person and seriously injuring her daughter.
Anyone who dials 999 for a non-emergency risks the life of other people immediately. The most simple example being being that emergency vehicles are taken from real emergencies to respond to hoaxes - with the strong possiblity that deaths occur.
The punishments for hoax calling the emergency services should be far higher. It isn’t an innocent little prank, but a mighty dangerous one. And that must be reflected in the punishments for hoax callers.
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Not sure what law they would use to prosecute hoax callers - not that this reduces my disgust at what that idiot did, though.
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Malicious Communications Act 1984, Telecomms Act 1988 give the police and CPS plenty of scope to prosecute the scum for hox calls Just need the Courts to sentence them to have their tongues stapled to their lower lips for six months. I would like the CPS to try a test prosecution for “unlawful act manslaughter” (Archbold19-98) if they can provide sufficient evidence to convince the jury of an unbroken chain of causation. But sentences for manslaughter?!
something needs to be done, that is manslaughter that