A multi jurisdiction investigation involving the Australian Federal Police, Northern Territory Police, Queensland Police, New South Wales Police and industry technicians has resulted in the arrest and charging of a 33-year-old Palumpa man with multiple counts of misuse of an emergency call service.
The investigation began following a referral from Queensland Police regarding an individual recorded as making numerous nuisance calls to a number of state ‘000’ call centres since 2014. It will be alleged in court that in 2015 alone the man was recorded making approximately 1862 calls to the New South Wales ‘000’ service.
The nuisance calls have been recorded in Queensland, NSW, South Australia and Western Australia. In all cases the nuisance calls are diverting emergency call centre resources away from legitimate emergency calls.
Following analysis of the calls and with the assistance of industry technical specialists, the calls were identified as originating in specific locations in the Northern Territory remote community Palumpa.
On Wednesday the 13th of December members of the NT Police and AFP attended Palumpa and arrested and charged a 33-year-old man with multiple counts of misuse of an emergence call service.
The man was bailed and is next scheduled to appear in the Wadeye Local Court on 13 March, 2018.
Police remind the community that wasting call takers time on nuisance and frivolous calls to ‘000’ services is an offence and can negatively impact the often lifesaving service provided by ‘000’ call centres.