A man has appeared at court accused of causing a false alarm by dialling 999 and telling fire control staff in Dundee his car had left the road and his partner was trapped in the vehicle.
Stephen Scott, 30, of Allan Robertson Drive in St Andrews, denies he made the hoax call last Friday, May 4, and gave false information to the control operator from the Scottish Fire and Rescue control centre in Dundee.
Scott appeared before Sheriff Robert Dickson at Dundee Sheriff Court on Thursday and pled not guilty to four charges of making hoax calls to the fire brigade since December last year, including falsely claiming his shed, his house and a car at a nearby property in his street were on fire.
He denies that, at the Scottish Fire and Rescue control centre in Dundee and elsewhere, he knowingly gave or caused to be given to control staff a false alarm of a road traffic collision he reported on the A85 near to Crieff Golf Club, Crieff, in Perthshire, that a vehicle had left the road and his partner was trapped within the vehicle, when no such road traffic collision had occurred.
He further denies that on December 6, 2017, at Allan Robertson Drive in St Andrews, he knowingly gave or caused to be given to a telephone operator employed by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service a false alarm of a fire, reporting to the operator that a shed was ablaze at his home in St Andrews, when the shed was not on fire.
He also denies that, on January 4 this year, he knowingly gave false information of a fire to an operator and that smoke could be seen within said home when there was in fact no smoke seen within the premises.
Scott further denies that on February 4 this year, again at his home at Allan Robertson Drive in St Andrews, he knowingly gave or caused to be given to a telephone operator a false alarm of a car fire at Allan Robertson Drive in St Andrews when in fact the car was not on fire.
Solicitor David Duncan told Sheriff Dickson that Scott was pleading not guilty to all four charges and moved for him to be released on bail.
Sheriff Dickson granted bail, setting trial for August 15, with an intermediate diet on July 24.
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