South Wales Police and the Welsh Ambulance Service have been successful in securing a Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) against a Barry man for making unnecessary and nuisance calls to the emergency services over a 12-month period.
Vincent Enos has been made a subject of a two-year CBO by Cardiff Magistrates’ Court to protect the members of the emergency services from these unnecessary calls.
He was made the subject of the CBO after being convicted on 17th May 2023 of persistently making use of public communication network to cause annoyance / inconvenience / anxiety.
Enos has made more than 250 calls to emergency services sometimes claiming people were dead, unwell or being abused.
When police officers and paramedics were deployed to the locations, there were no such incidents.One of the calls, prompted an air ambulance response.
The estimated cost of the hoax calls to the ambulance service was £5,000.
It is also estimated that the total amount of time that police call handlers spent dealing with his calls was 28 hours, 2 minutes, and 15 seconds.
Enos was found guilty at court and was issued a 12-month community order, a fine of £338, victim surcharge £114 and ordered to pay court costs £85.
He was also issued a CBO which prohibits the 54-year-old from contacting any emergency service, the 999 or 101 emergency services number, or via email, text or any other method, except in a genuine emergency situation and shall not incite, encourage or instruct other persons to do so.
Anti-Social Behaviour Co-ordinator, PC Adrian Muscat from South Wales Police, said: “Vincent Enos’ actions potentially risked the safety and health of other members of the public due to the emergency services being tied up dealing with persistent unnecessary calls.
“The CBO does not prevent Mr Enos from calling the emergency services where there is a genuine emergency.
“We hope that the CBO imposed on him serves as a warning to others that – with our partners – will use the full force of the law to protect the members of the emergency services and the public where persons are guilty of wasting emergency services time.”
A breach of a CBO is an arrestable offence for which the recipient, if found guilty of, may be fined, sentenced to imprisonment or both.
