Hoax caller arrested after giving description of himself (From Oxford Mail)

Hoax caller arrested after giving description of himself

9:30am Saturday 2nd March 2013 in News

A DIDCOT man who made hoax calls to police was arrested when he gave a description of himself to officers for a crime that had not been committed.

Lewis Atkins, of Thorpe Street, Aston Upthorpe, Didcot, pleaded guilty to persistently making use of the communication network to cause annoyance, inconvenience or anxiety last month.

The 23-year-old was sentenced at Reading Magistrates’ Court on Thursday to a 12-month community order, 100 hours of unpaid work and a victims’ surcharge of £60.

The hoax calls were made to police in the early hours of Sunday, November 18, giving details of ongoing incidents in the Newbury area, which turned out to be false.

The first call was made from a telephone kiosk at 3.08am reporting a fight, which resulted in police officers attending.

Three further calls, with the last at 4.19am, reported that cars were being damaged.

Atkins also gave a description of an offender.

Officers attended and found him walking along Greenham Road in Newbury. They arrested him on suspicion of criminal damage, as he matched the description given.

While he was being arrested he dropped a sim card, which he admitted using to make three of the hoax calls.

Pc Mark Martin-Dye, of Reading police station, said: “The hoax calls made by Lewis Atkins wasted police time and resources, as each call was dealt with at the time as a real crime in progress.

“On the last hoax call he made, Atkins actually passed a detailed description of himself and then appeared to hang around the area for police to attend and arrest him.”

Comments are closed on this article.