Phone call by Shrewsbury man wasted 20 hours of police time
A drunk man who called police to say armed intruders were breaking into his house has pleaded guilty to wasting police time.
Twelve police officers attended the Shrewsbury home of Jonathan Beatty Thomas after he phoned them under a fake name to say that seven men were kicking down his front door, one of whom was carrying a knife, a court was told.
Mr Chris Coughlan, prosecuting at Telford Magistrates Court, said the defendant had been difficult to understand on the phone and that police had been concerned.
But when they arrived at the address, Thomas refused to let them into the house and officers were left outside until another tenant opened the door for them, said Mr Coughlan.
Once inside police found four other people in the flat, none of whom would admit to placing the call.
Shortly after they left the building officers received another call from the same number as the original but with the caller identifying himself as Jonathan Beatty Thomas.
Mr Coughlan said they returned to the property at which point the defendant opened the door and was obviously under the influence of drink and drugs.
The 24-year-old admitted to police that he had made the call and pleaded guilty to one charge of wasting police. The court was told that police estimated 20 man hours were lost by the call.
Thomas, of Rutland in Harlescott Grange, was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £250 compensation, £85 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.
For Beatty Thomas, Mr Stephen Scully said that his client had been placed in housing by a charity but also living in the house were several names who would be familiar to the magistrates.
That evening a fight had broken out at the address he said, but when the officers arrived Thomas had not wanted to admit that it was him who had called them.
Mr Scully said that evening Beatty Thomas had drunk five cans of super strength lager and taken drugs. A spokesman for the probation service said that Beatty Thomas had been working well with them while under their supervision and had also been seeking treatment for drink and drugs problems "off his own back".
