Police plead with parents after mobile phone calls 999 more than 3,000 times in a month

Police in Jersey have pleaded with parents after an old mobile phone called 999 more than 3,000 times in a month.

Officers say they don't believe they are genuine emergency calls, but more likely to be a toddler or child being given an old mobile phone to play with.

Jersey Police say they have identified the device as being a Samsung mobile with no SIM card installed.

Even without a SIM card or number, emergency calls to 999 or 112 are still able to be connected to the emergency services.

The island's telecoms companies - which direct emergency calls to the appropriate service as they are made - have dealt with more than 3,000 calls in the space of a month.

Police say the calls started around Saturday 6 May, causing a lot of extra work for call handlers and potentially delaying genuine emergency calls being answered.

They tend to happen between 7am and midday, and then again between 3pm and 9pm.

The force said: "We would never block a device from calling 999, but we do need to try and stop this happening.

"We don't want to sound accusatory as no one is in any trouble, but we would just like people to check if they have given an old phone to a child to play with, that they aren't dialling 999 on it."

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