#999-calls

#999-calls

A US citizen has been jailed for 12 months after a sustained bomb hoax campaign targeting venues and hospitals, including Guy's and St Thomas' in central London. David Hart, 22, made 95 bogus 999 calls from late October to mid November 2023. A court heard that Hart made multiple calls to UK telephone numbers with 66 directed to the capital. While not all connected successfully, a significant number did.

In the last year, just 15% of all 999 calls to the Metropolitan Police have been for genuine emergencies, the force has said. Non-emergency calls included someone who had a spider in their room, another whose dog would not come back into their house, and others who have had no-show delivery drivers. The force said the calls, which totalled 1.87m between July 2024 and July 2025, took up valuable call handler time and stopped them from dealing with genuine emergencies.