Man Sentenced After Making More Than 200 Abusive 999 Calls

A man who made more than 200 non-emergency 999 calls — many of them abusive — over a seven-month period has been sentenced.

Charlie Murphy, 37, from Shoreham, repeatedly contacted police between June 2025 and January this year, despite none of the calls relating to genuine emergencies.

Instead, call handlers were subjected to threats and verbal abuse while trying to check on his welfare.

Murphy was averaging more than one call a day, with spikes in activity seeing close to 50 calls made in both October and December.

He was arrested in January and charged with persistently using a public communications network to cause annoyance, inconvenience or anxiety.

Despite being released on conditional bail, Murphy continued to contact police, making a further 70 calls in the weeks that followed.

He initially denied the offence when appearing at Worthing Magistrates’ Court in March, but later changed his plea to guilty at a subsequent hearing in April.

Murphy was handed a two-year Criminal Behaviour Order, which bans him from calling any emergency number unless there is a genuine need.

Police say the volume of calls placed a significant strain on resources and risked delaying responses to real emergencies, with officers and staff having to spend considerable time dealing with the incidents and preparing evidence.

They have also stressed the importance of respecting emergency call handlers, who provide a vital service and should not be subjected to abuse.

Members of the public are reminded to only dial 999 in a genuine emergency.