Pensioner who made more than 7,000 nuisance and abusive calls to emergency services jailed

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A pensioner who made more than 7,000 calls to the emergency services and subjected workers to “vile abuse” has been jailed.

Roger Jackson, 77, wasted more than 400 hours since September 2020 speaking to contact officers from Sussex Police and the South East Coast Ambulance Service.

He pleaded guilty at Lewes Crown Court on 27 January and has been sentenced to prison for 39 months and will have a Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) for 10 years.

In one exchange with Sussex Police, the nuisance caller said: “You’re letting people die like flies. There’s too many people... there’s 93,000 people vacant.”

When the call handler asked him to “hang on” he replied “Shut up you ****”.

Force Persistent Caller lead for Sussex Police Sarah-Louise Gliddon said Jackson’s actions blocked the lines of people who genuinely needed help.

“Jackson has been a persistent caller for a number of years and as such has been given multiple warnings up to his arrest last year owing to the volume of calls he was making to both police and ambulance,” she said.

“The volume and the frequency of Jackson’s calls impacted the contact centre’s ability to provide a service to the public, who genuinely needed police assistance or attendance while he was blocking the line.

“Being police staff as a contact officer is a job to be proud of with the variety of work and the professionalism demanded within the role everyday with every call that is taken. They shouldn’t endure being spoken to the way Jackson did.”

Jackson, from Horsham, West Sussex, also persistently abused contact handlers from SECAmb, making 3,976 calls through to 999.

South East Coast Ambulance Service Frequent Caller Lead and Paramedic, Nathan Daxner said that hoax calls can put lives at risk by diverting attention away from people that need help.

“Jackson subjected our call centre staff to repeated vile verbal abuse on a daily basis and the impact his actions should not be underestimated.”

“Just one malicious and false call puts lives at risk by diverting our attention and resources away from people in our communities who genuinely need our help. All our staff strive to provide the best care possible to our communities without facing verbal abuse and timewasting.”