Plague of malicious calls despite special unit

ONE HUNDRED people are plagued by malicious phone calls every day despite the efforts of a special unit set up to deal with the problem.

The Malicious Calls Bureau (MCB) deals with around 26,000 complaints a year, compared to 30,000 when it set up in 1998.

Those behind the calls included former partners, bored schoolchildren, and people with personal grudges.

About 48% of the calls dealt with last year were threatening or abusive, 35% were silent calls, 8% were hoax calls and 9% were electronic (involving faxes and power dialling).

Eircom, which operates MCB, said about two-thirds of the cases were resolved after the victims received advice.

Spokeswoman Gráinne O’Malley said: “The remaining one-third would have changed their number or requested the gardaí to trace the nuisance calls.”

She said the level of malicious calls was fairly constant over the last few years.

Some 41% of victims last year were from Dublin with the remaining 59% outside the 01 area. Women made 57% of the complaints, with men accounting for 41% and businesses 8%.

The number of calls increases after pub closing times and after school hours.

“People who engage in hoax or nuisance calls possibly don’t realise just how seriously they are dealt with.

“There are fairly hefty fines or a prison sentence,” said Ms O’Malley.

Malicious callers face fines from €1,000 to €63,500 or up to five years in prison.

Last month, a Leitrim farmer was jailed for a year and fined nearly €2,000 at Sligo Circuit Court for harassing a girlfriend he broke up with in 1989.

John Mulvey kept up his phonecalls and text messages to the woman even after she married and changed her number, culminating in a night in July 2003 when he called her 29 times.

In one of the most disturbing incidents, the families of two young boys killed in the Omagh bombing received malicious calls from an anonymous person in 1998.

Ms O’Mallley said malicious callers could cause great anxiety and stress to their victims.

“You would feel very threatened, particularly if you’re getting calls at night-time. But the main thing is there are procedures in place to help people. They don’t have to suffer in silence,” she said.

The Malicious Calls Bureau is open Monday to Friday. It can be reached at the freephone number 1800 689 689.