POLICE in North Ayrshire are raising awareness of the dangers of making hoax calls to the emergency services.

There has been an increase in these calls over the last month and police are warning people about how much of an impact this has.

PC Colin Johnson, said: “In the last month there have been 24 calls to police from public phones boxes which were either silent or hoax in nature. Each of these calls had to be investigated to ensure the safety of the caller.

“This enquiry takes time which could be spent handling genuine emergencies and responding to people in distress. Enquiries have revealed the majority of these calls were made by children and youths playing, and we will continue to work with partners to raise educate and raise awareness of the dangers and illegality of these calls."