South Yorkshire Police: Sheffield woman hauled before the court for making hoax calls to the emergency services

Earlier this month, Chantelle Sykes appeared before the court charged with ‘persistently making use of a public communication network to cause annoyance, inconvenience, anxiety’ and three counts of ‘send by public communication network an offensive, indecent, obscene, menacing message’.

Sykes, 28, of Pollard Crescent, Southey Green was charged following a series of hoax and inappropriate calls in December 2021.

Details of the case have been released by South Yorkshire Police, as the force attempts to warn people of the consequences of making inappropriate and hoax calls to 999.

A South Yorkshire Police spokesperson said: “Sykes called 999 claiming she had been stabbed in the leg with a kitchen knife.

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"Officers attended, alongside the National Police Air Service, and searched the area, but were unable to find a victim, or witnesses. Later in the evening Sykes repeatedly called 999 and was laughing down the phone.

“She called from the same number for the following few days, including calls to Yorkshire Ambulance Service and South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service.”

The South Yorkshire Police spokesperson said Sykes was given a Criminal Behaviour Order for 12 months with the conditions that; she must not dial 999 or 101 unless in an emergency, make any reports to the police unless she reasonably believes that her report is true and accurate, or use verbal abuse towards any emergency services operator. She was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge and will be on a tagged curfew for eight weeks.