Nuisance Rapper Plagues Police '999'

A single hoax caller has bombarded Greater Manchester Police with thousands of calls where he chants, sings, raps, preaches and plays loud music to call handlers.

It started in January 2009, but in the last three months alone, the rapper has made around 700 calls, which costs the Force up to £1,000 a month purely to handle his calls.

The call handlers are also tied up for several minutes trying to deal this man, stopping them from responding to genuine emergency calls to people in real need of help and potentially putting lives at risk.

Despite blocking more than 60 SIM cards, the man - who appears to be speaking with a Jamaican accent - continues to make nuisance calls by using unregistered phones.

Police have worked with a number of different mobile phone operators to establish that most of the calls are made from either Moss Side or Old Trafford.

Superintendent Karan Lee, who is Greater Manchester Police's head of call handling, said: "Despite numerous attempts to block the phones he has been using, this man continues to call 999 to make his inappropriate outbursts.

"I would hope he does not do this out of malice because he is putting lives at risk. At busy times, the line can be blocked by his calls which mean people with a genuine emergency cannot get through.

"We feel incredibly frustrated when this happens, because we are constantly striving to provide the best possible service to the people of Greater Manchester."

Call Handling manager Jason Unsworth added: "You can never guess when this man is going to call up, and that's part of the problem. With the World Cup on at the moment, it's an added pressure when he does call, because it can be literally any time of the day, and he can be on the phone for several minutes.

"He is causing us a big problem because of the sheer volume of calls he makes and the time wasted dealing with him. We have to treat each call as if it was a real emergency, so it's frustrating and worrying when we get time wasters preventing people with real emergencies coming through."

(GK)