Police hunt hoax caller

Saturday 03 September 2016

Jersey Police are investigating who made the hoax call which resulted in an unnecessary major sea search.

Just after 15:30 last Wednesday afternoon, Jersey Coastguard got a 999 call from a young girl saying her friend had been swept out by the tide. The call sparked a large-scale search, involving the Coastguard, St Catherine's Lifeboat and the Fire Service inshore rescue boat, as well as islanders in the area who were out on their boats.

At the same time Jersey Coastguard were also dealing with two other emergencies on Jersey’s South coast – a person stranded by the incoming tide and a boat broken down in the shipping lanes when commercial vessels were coming in.

The search was eventually called off when it became clear the girl's call had actually been a hoax. In a Facebook post, the Coastguard warned that hoax calls such as this are very dangerous:

"The RNLI put their lives at risk when responding to incidents as do the Fire Service when they make a blue light response with their inshore rescue craft. 

"Had any more incidents taken place at this time we would have had increased response times and would not have been able to release our assets that were searching Bouley Bay until we were 100% certain that the call was a hoax."

Now, a spokesman for the Coastguard has issued a statement saying that "new information" has been passed onto the Police to investigate:

"On behalf of Jersey Coastguard I can confirm that following our own enquiries undertaken over the last few days in relation to the above new information has come to light, which has today, Friday 02 September 2016 been handed to the States of Jersey Police."