Police anger over hoaxes

A CRIMINAL investigation has been launched into a series of simultaneous hoax phone calls to Bathurst police.

The bogus triple-0 calls tied up stretched police and ambulance resources late on Tuesday afternoon.

Both calls came in at about 4.30pm, with the first claiming a young person had been shot at Kelso Public School.

As police rushed to the scene, a second bogus call claimed a person's limb had been severed at an address in Havannah Street.

Both calls were found to be false alarms.

Chifley local area command duty officer Inspector Richard Maddox said yesterday the serious nature of the hoax phone calls could not be underestimated.

Naturally, police responded to both the calls as a matter of urgency," he said.

"These are very serious matters. Both jobs were running at the same time.

"Police and ambulance rushed to Kelso Public School in the belief a young person had been shot.

"After speaking with the principal there we found it to be a fictitious call.

"In regard to the Havannah Street call, after some looking we found the address details we were given did not exist."

Inspector Maddox said tha,t at this stage, police have not listened to the tape recordings of the hoax phone calls.

"However, all triple-0 calls are recorded which gives us the content of the conversation as well as where the call originated," he said.

"We will be making investigations and every effort will be made to track down whoever is responsible for the hoax calls.

"So, we have some degree of confidence we can get to the bottom of this. I would reiterate hoax calls are a criminal offence.

"They waste considerable time and resources for emergency services.

"Imagine the importance of a quick response to a child being shot. You wouldn't be very happy if a family member had a heart attack or was involved in a car accident, only to find no ambulance could respond because they were busy attending to a hoax call."

Bathurst's top cop, Superintendent Mick Robinson, said yesterday people who make hoax calls can be charged with causing public mischief.

"They cause an investigation to take place when nothing has happened," Supt Robinson said.

"We need to put police where they are needed and not waste time like this. They could be needed to respond to an incident where life or death is at stake and not be delayed being somewhere else.

"These are highly irresponsible actions and whoever did this needs to really think long and hard, because they are committing a criminal office.

"There's no ifs or buts about it. We will have no hesitation hunting down people who do these type of things."

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