A FIRE and rescue service has received hundreds of hoax calls from people in Wrexham and Flintshire over the last five years, figures have revealed.

Freedom of information data obtained by the Leader has shown that North Wales Fire and Rescue Service has had upwards of 450 'malicious false alarms' across the two counties since 2013 - 174 in Flintshire and 305 in Wrexham.

Of those, the fire service actually attended the scene of false alarms 33 times in Flintshire and 79 times in Wrexham.

In 33 of the Wrexham cases and 21 of the Flintshire cases, call handlers were able to ascertain that the call was malicious and resources were not mobilised.

The majority of the hoax calls for both counties fell into the category of 'call challenged' - which means the call handler has had interaction with the caller to get more information about the incident.

This was the case for 120 of the Flintshire calls and 193 of the Wrexham calls.

Peter Davies, Control Room Manager for North Wales Fire and Rescue Service said: “North Wales Fire and Rescue Service is proactive in its efforts to reduce the number of malicious incidents that firefighters attend through a scheme called 'Call Challenging'.

"The control operator will challenge the caller if they suspect it to be a hoax call before mobilising fire crews.

“Members of the public should be aware that all calls to the Fire and Rescue Service are recorded, along with the callers details and where they are calling from, even from a mobile phone.

"This information can be shared with the Police and Ambulance to see if the caller has any history of making hoax calls to other services.

"This means that there is a much greater chance of a person making a hoax call being traced. If a person is caught making a hoax call then they could face prosecution.

“Unfortunately children are often unaware how potentially dangerous these calls can be.

"Hoax calls are extremely worrying for the Service as when fire crews are dispatched unnecessarily valuable resources become committed which could be needed for life saving at other incidents.

"Making hoax calls to any emergency service is a criminal offence.

"Silent or calls reporting false details of a fire are not acceptable. If any one has any information about persons making malicious calls to the emergency services they should contact the police immediately.

"The fire and rescue service is asking parents to help by making sure that they know where their children are and what they are up to during the evenings, weekends and school holidays."