A HOAX caller called 999 and told the operator he ‘was not going to stop’ hassling them, police said.

Officers in Colne have traced a group of prank callers, who made 400 malicious calls in a month, to Colne Primet Academy.

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Sergeant Kim de Curtis said after officers took action by visiting the school, the calls had almost stopped, but the control room then received 50 calls in one night from two numbers in the Clare Avenue area of Colne.

The officer said: “Sadly the nuisance/hoax calls to Lancashire Police Control room via the 999 service are still continuing from the Colne area.

“This has become a significant issue for colleagues over at headquarters and we are now appealing for anyone with information regarding this issue to contact the police “We carried out some work with a local high school and spoke to students and the calls all but stopped.

“However on Thursday night our control room were plagued with over 50 calls in the space of a a few hours by two separate mobile numbers.

“The second number was a young male who told us ‘he wasn’t going to stop’.”

Sgt de Curtis asked parents to check their children’s mobile phones, particularly if they end in 1464 or 7791 and to call police if they had any suspicions.

She added: “We appeal to parents to do the right thing and let us know so we can educate them around the dangers of tying up our 999 lines and wasting the time of operators, who are busy and stretched enough.

“Wasting an operator’s time could quite easily have huge effect on people who really need our service.”

Officers offered to take anybody found to be making malicious calls to the control centre to see for themselves the pressures call handlers were under and the effects fake emergencies could have on somebody who really needed help.

Andrew Stephenson, prospective Conservative party candidate for Pendle in the general election, said he was ‘deeply concerned’ about the hoax calls.

He said: “ It is deeply irresponsible.”

Anybody with information can call police on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.