999 nuisance rapper

POLICE are being plagued by a rapper who has made thousands of nuisance 999 calls over 18 months.

Since January, 2009, the man has pestered Greater Manchester Police by chanting, singing, rapping, preaching and playing loud music to call handlers.

In the last three months alone he has made around 700 calls, which costs the force up to £1,000 a month purely to handle his calls.

The call handlers are tied up for several minutes trying to deal with him, stopping them from responding to genuine emergency calls and potentially putting lives at risk.

Despite blocking more than 60 SIM cards, the man — who appears to have a Jamaican accent — continues to make nuisance calls by using unregistered phones. Police have worked with a number of different mobile phone operators to establish that most of the calls are from either Moss Side or Old Trafford.

Supt Karan Lee, GMP’s head of call handling, said: “Despite numerous attempts to block the phones he has been using, this man continues to call 999 to make his inappropriate outbursts.

“I would hope he does not do this out of malice because he is putting lives at risk. At busy times, the line can be blocked by his calls which mean people with a genuine emergency cannot get through.

“We feel incredibly frustrated when this happens, because we are constantly striving to provide the best possible service to the people of Greater Manchester.”