Man jailed for misusing emergency contact centre

A Victorian man has been jailed after making more than 3600 crank calls to the emergency 000 contact centre.

The man made 3674 calls to 000 between May 2005, and December 2007, was usually drunk and abusive to agents. He was initially arrested last August and had his mobile phone seized, but called 000 two days later on a new phone to ask where he could get his old phone back.

Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority spokesman Wayne Debernardi said fire brigade, police and ambulance services responding to crank calls were being dispatched to homes where there was no emergency. The man was jailed for three months but started making more 000 calls after his release and is now serving a four-month jail term.

Originally published in Callcentres.net