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Harassing phone calls/messages
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
For the past few weeks now my brothers been getting horrible phone calls/answer phone messages from a bunch of people he used to go to college with (he left this summer). They had a massive falling out towards the end but figured leaving college would signal the end now they no longer have to see each other. Obviously this hasn't been the case and he's been getting these calls messages at the same time every week (when they're all out in town) and they all take it in turns to shout various abuse down the phone which I won't repeat here. Now he has the number and knows who it is, I was just wondering how the police would deal with it if he reported it? Would it even be worth reporting? Thanks in advance
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Comments
Your brother has 2 options. He can either;
Change his number (not really the best I know).
Contact the police. Police will attend, take a look at the messages etc and then what they do is up to you. They can go and give the guy a bollocking, they can go and arrest the guy and charge him, or they can give him a penalty fine for £80.
It is an offence under the misuse of communications act to send a message via the public communications network that causes harassment, alarm, annoyance, distress. I ticketed a lad the other day for sending abusive emails, I personally think for stuff like this it's a nice, painless way (for the police and victim) to sort something out.
(1)A person is guilty of an offence if he? .
(a)sends by means of a public electronic communications network a message or other matter that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character; or .
(b)causes any such message or matter to be so sent.
AND/OR
(2)A person is guilty of an offence if, for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to another, he? .
(a)sends by means of a public electronic communications network, a message that he knows to be false, .
(b)causes such a message to be sent; or .
(c)persistently makes use of a public electronic communications network.
If he can make copies of them, or take a photograph of them, do it, as it least you'll have other copies if they want to take his mobile phone to be analysed, as it's possible they can still recover the messages from the handset I think.
It's still worth contacting them, they might want you to wait to see if you get some more for evidential reasons.
Unflithen, they won't analyse the phone and try and recover messages for an offence like this.
Phone company would probably still have a record of the messages?
Sounds like he will almost certainly receive more so make sure he doesn't delete those.
The guy has been interviewed and cautioned and told that if he contacts my brother again in any way in the next 6 months he will be liable for arrest and prosecution
:-)
Thank you