Prank calls cost almost €60,000 last year
Money down the drain
A fire engine was pointlessly sent out almost every day in 2008 because of prank calls, an exercise that cost the government almost €60,000.
Official figures show that 225 hoax calls were made to the Civil Protection Department last year, almost two every three days, and cost the government €250 per call - a total of €56,250.
Not only do bomb hoax calls involve five soldiers trained in explosive devices, two army cars and a sniffer dog to scour the area where the explosive device is supposed to be situated but the whole system is put on hold.
There were 34 bomb threats last year, the majority being reported in court, with each operation costing €110, a total of €3,740 went down the drain.
The figure does not include the cost of postponed court cases, increased case load and the money wasted because lawyers, police officers, court employees, litigants and members of the judiciary have to wait outside the courts for a solid hour.
Hoax calls are not reported in the media in order to prevent the number from increasing but are always taken seriously by the authorities.
Recently, the police admitted that one in three calls to the 112 emergency line operated by the Malta police was left unanswered.
The police blamed Malta's poor record on blocked lines caused by prank callers or those who called when there was no genuine emergency. In addition, they said, some people did not allow enough time for their calls to be answered.
Only last month, the army sent out 52 specially trained soldiers to comb through Comino after receiving a report that there were about 50 immigrants. After almost three hours of searching, nothing was found.
Although the number of hoax calls is substantial, it is very rare for someone to be caught and prosecuted. Only recently, a man was jailed for 18 months for hoax calls he made to hospital and court, saying there was a bomb. His call had disrupted an extremely delicate operation on a baby and postponed 1,000 appointments in Casualty and Outpatients.
The reason he gave for making the hoax call? The man had a court case scheduled that day but had no money to pay his lawyer!
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