Jailed for making over 11,000 nuisance calls

By Natasha Reid

A 48-year-old man has been jailed for 16 months for making more than 11,000 nuisance calls to emergency services, jamming emergency telephone lines for nearly 130 hours in 2023.

William Greene of Bective Square, Phibsborough was under a suspended sentence at the time for giving false information in a hoax 999 call.

He was before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today (Thursday), where he pleaded guilty to two counts of persistently making use of the telecommunications system for the purpose of causing annoyance, interference or needless anxiety to another between March 8 and November 9, 2023.

Detective Garda Jeremy Gibbons said that investigation was begun in light of the number of consistent calls to the emergency services from two phone numbers.

“Due to the excessive number, these numbers were monitored to a greater extent than typical nuisance-type calls. This was far in excess,” he explained.

He said that on one occasion, a significant number of calls was received by one call taker, who recognised Greene’s voice, manner and phrases.

She listened back to playbacks of calls from that number, and the narrative was the same; he hated the guards and told her go screw herself and the Government.

On another occasion, a call taker asked: “Is this William Greene? You’ll be in trouble.”

He replied that he was always in trouble.

“F**k the guards, Up the Dubs,” he added, along with other expletives.

The phone number was linked to him, and his home was searched.

A Nokia mobile phone was found with the sim relating to that phone number, and he was arrested in October 2023.

Notwithstanding this initial arrest, the calls continued.

His house was searched again and a second phone was found.

He denied that he had a phone and made the calls. He said that he had issues with his mental health and acknowledged that he needed help.

Det Gda Gibbons said that, altogether, 11,043 calls had been made, lasting a total of 7,757.6 minutes or 129 hours.

He said that the number of genuine calls that were missed because the lines were occupied with these calls could not be quantified.

There were over 100 calls an hour from him on some occasions, causing gridlock and jamming emergency telephone lines in the Laois, Offaly, and Kildare areas.

Greene also placed an inordinate number of silent or ‘hangup’ calls.

These led to the call takers having to follow a particular procedure because they must reach out to such callers if they think they need assistance.

As he had denied having a phone, a lot of work had to be done to link him to the numbers.

This included cell site analysis.

The court also heard that Greene was under a suspended sentence at the time due to a conviction for giving false information during a hoax 999 call.

He also had 20 other previous convictions, which included public order and criminal damage convictions.

The garda agreed with defence counsel that Greene had a nefarious addiction to alcohol and was heavily intoxicated when making these calls.

He said that he was better presented today than on previous days, explaining that he had been in custody since October of last year.

Judge Martin Nolan remarked that he was sure the emergency services were happier now Greene was in prison.

“I should keep him in custody because he’s a menace, isn’t he?” he asked.

However, counsel said that his client was a qualified chef who had worked in the HSE, had pleaded guilty early and had engaged constructively with the criminal justice system.

He handed in a psychological report, which he said showed that Greene was a fundamentally good person, who had got lost.

He said that he had been hit by a realisation as soon as he went into prison and had to share a multi-occupant cell. Greene has now made efforts to address his addiction.

Judge Nolan said that this was not an individual incident, but a pattern of misbehaviour.

He imposed a three-year sentence and suspended the final 20 months on him entering a bond.