A man who denied making repeated hoax calls to the police was snared when officers turned up at his home and simply rang his telephone.
Darren Cran, 29, hadn’t counted on police arriving at his door and ringing the number that had been used to make dozens of abusive and sexual calls to 999 call handlers
Upon being arrested by cops, he told them: “If I had a knife I would go through your f**king heart”.
His solicitor told the court that Cran had been feeling lonely and isolated at the time of the offence.
He has now appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court and admitted making the calls.
Accused made threats to harm public
Fiscal depute Emma Petersen told the court that at around 10.30pm on April 17 this year Cran “continued to make repeated 999 calls”.
“On that same evening, he made 13 calls to 999 within an hour and a half to request police attendance.
“He repeatedly made threats of violence to members of the public in general.
“As police call handlers questioned him about his whereabouts he was obstructive but was finally traced.”
The officers who then attended at Cran’s home waited until he had answered the door and then called his phone number.
When he was arrested Cran made a number of derogatory comments towards the officers, saying he would “slash their throats”.
A few weeks later Cran made more nuisance calls, this time demanding that police call handlers send a woman over to his home because he was “horny”.
When police arrived to arrest Cran he kicked a door from the inside and called officers “pigs”.
As they seized his mobile phone he shouted: “If I had a knife I would go through your f**king heart.”
He pleaded guilty to two charges of calling emergency services when there was no emergency to report and a further two charges of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner.
‘He is not proud of himself’
Defence agent Paul Barnett told the court that his client had been “lonely and isolated” at the time of his offences.
He said: “This behaviour is a result of depression and significant alcohol consumption.
“He has experienced genuine remorse and he is not proud of himself.
“The threats he made were completely empty.”
Sheriff Andrew Miller told Cran that what he was facing were “serious offences”.
He added: “The police and emergency services are under a lot of pressure and when members of the public call 999 it has to be responded to.
“This was not a good use of their time and if there had been an emergency when they were dealing with you then they would not have been able to attend that.
“You were also offensive and abusive to those officers who did attend.”
Sheriff Miller sentenced Cran, of George Street, Aberdeen, to a community payback order with supervision for 12 months and ordered him to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work.
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