Audio: Five Hoax calls released by Hertfordshire Constabulary

HERTFORDSHIRE Constabulary has today released five more hoax or inappropriate recordings of calls made in the last six months to the 999 service as part of the force's campaign to cut these calls.

The sound bites are as follows:

Call one - a hoax call from a man claiming there was a bomb in Hollywood Bowl, Watford, made on January 11 2009. We dispatched 10 officers and it took around two hours to resolve this call, including searches of the premises and nearby ones. The caller has not been traced.

Call two - a hoax call from a man claiming he has been racially abused in Harpenden by a group of people with a bottle of Vodka and a knife. We dispatched 9 police officers before finding it was a hoax and the caller received a fixed penalty notice for the offence.

Call three - an inappropriate call from a man who said he was lost and wanted the operator to track his mobile and tell him where he was.

Call four - an inappropriate call from a man saying he was lost, had wet feet and wanted a lift home from police.

Call five - an inappropriate call from a man in Hemel Hempstead reporting that an ice cream seller had sold him an ice cream with a fly in and was also selling crisps from a multi-pack.

A hoax call is where someone rings 999 for a deliberately malicious reason. An inappropriate call is where someone rings the 999 service in error. This can be where people make 999 calls to pass messages on to officers or when they in fact want to get hold of another agency, such as a water board or electricity company.

Hertfordshire Constabulary is hoping to drive down numbers of calls in both these categories through this campaign, with help from the media and members of the public. Either form of call can divert resources away from a genuine 999 call, where there is an immediate threat to life or property.