No charges for girls in hoax ‘Ellie’ 999 call

The two girls, from Bridlington, contacted the ambulance service on July 30 claiming to be a toddler called Ellie, whose mother was unconscious in the kitchen of her Leeds home.

Police estimate the subsequent search effort wasted around £3,000 of taxpayers’ money and tied up more than 12 investigating officers before eventually being traced to Bridlington and exposed as a prank.

After considering the case, the youth offending team and the Crown Prosecution Service have now decided no criminal charges will be brought in relation to the call. Instead the two young girls will visit emergency service call handlers to hear about the impact of hoax calls.

Detective Superintendent David Pervin, from West Yorkshire Police Homicide and Major Enquiry Team, said: “The investigation of this hoax call took up a significant amount of police time and resources that could have been better spent dealing with real incidents.

“Our priority was one of preservation of life, to find this ‘little girl and her mum’ and get help to them.

“The girls are now going through a formal process to challenge their behaviour and make them appreciate the impact of their actions.

“We hope it teaches them a very important lesson about how misuse of the 999 system can cause significant unnecessary work for the emergency services, and how hoaxes can result in diverting limited resources away from dealing with genuine calls.”