“scam” call

By Ralph Barnett

THE VOLUNTEER crews of the Arbroath RNLI lifeboats were scrambled yesterday to help what was believed to be a small boat in difficulties in the thick sea fog off the Angus coast.

But it was discovered they had been the victims of a particularly thoughtless money-making phone scam.

The drama—which wasted the time of the RNLI, the police and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA)—began when the wife of Arbroath lifeboat coxswain Tommy Yule had a call on her home phone.

The caller said little more than “Help, help,” before hanging up.

As Mr Yule was out of town, his wife alerted the police and coastguard and the request was put out to launch the Arbroath all-weather boat Inchcape and the station’s inshore boat Duncan Ferguson.

Volunteer crew all over Arbroath were alerted by pager and dropped what they were doing to respond to the “shout.”

Within a few minutes the boats were ready to launch and waiting for further instructions from the coastguard.

The crews were ordered to stand down after around an hour when, after intensive inquiries, it was found the call had been spurious and no-one was in difficulties.

A spokesman for the MCA co-ordination centre at Crail said, “This incident began with an anonymous call to an apparently random private number which, in this case, just happened to be that of the cox of the Arbroath lifeboat.

“His wife, quite correctly, reacted by alerting us and we put the response in motion by requesting the Arbroath boats to prepare for launch.

“Attempts to call the number back were unsuccessful and the police were unable to triangulate the originating telephone to give a location for the call.

“It would appear that this is basically a scam and that any attempt to call the number back will cost you a minimum of 50p a time.

“Obviously we made quite a few attempts to return the call, fearing that there was someone who genuinely needed help, and I understand the police tried several times as well.

“As a precaution, we made contact with a number of vessels of the east coast asking them to look out for any yacht or boat which appeared to be difficulties and were preparing for a full search operation when we were told that this was all as a result of some kind of phone scam.

“All in all it was a complete and utter waste of time and resources which, had a genuine emergency arisen, would have placed an additional strain on our ability to offer assistance.”

Allan Russell, who was acting as cox in Mr Yule’s absence, said, “I think this is absolutely scandalous and I’m sure I’m not the only member of the crew who would like to meet whoever was responsible for this face to face.

“The conditions off Arbroath were not good, with very poor visibility in the thick haar, and the thought that I and the volunteer crews could have been out there risking our own lives because some idiot has come up with a way of making an easy buck just makes my blood boil.”

He added, “I hope whoever is behind this sordid little scam is proud of himself.”

In addition to “scam” alert, the inshore lifeboat was called out twice yesterday.

Shortly before 5pm it was launched after reports boys were in difficulties in the harbour area, but no action was required.

During the evening it was launched again to help in the recovery of a dog which had gone over the cliffs north of Arbroath while apparently chasing a rabbit.

Sadly, the dog was found dead at the foot of the cliffs.