A MAN who dialled 999 while drunk in Carlisle and falsely claimed he’d been stabbed has been given a suspended jail term.
Anthony Sives-Rutherford, 39, knocked back 10 pints of lager before making the false call from a Botchergate phone kiosk at 12-30am on July 19.
Sives-Rutherford told a handler he had been “stabbed and was bleeding”, sparking a major police emergency deployment of three vehicles and six officers.
After it became clear there was no such incident, Sives-Rutherford was arrested and found to match the description of the kiosk caller caught on CCTV.
He admitted the hoax but claimed to have a “personality disorder” which meant he was not in control of himself at the time, North and West Cumbria Magistrates’ Court heard today (TUES)
Sives-Rutherford, of Henry Street, Whitehaven, admitted sending a false public communication to cause inconvenience. He reported “long-standing mental health difficulties” to a probation officer, who concluded substance abuse appeared to be linked to his offending but that constructive work could be done to help.
District Judge Gerald Chalk suspended a 48-day jail term for 12 months, and imposed a rehabilitation requirement and a six-week night-night curfew.
District Judge Chalk spoke of a “substantial” Cumbria police deployment on the night, observing: “It would have caused them concern that so many people had to be out and about for what proved to be a malicious phone call.”
