HOAX fire calls are tumbling on Teesside following a hi-tech crackdown on phone pests.

Cleveland Fire Brigade has so far this year received 700 fewer malicious calls from telephone boxes compared to the previous 12 months.

The reduction follows a relatively quiet summer, school holidays are usually a busy time for nuisance calls.

The brigade is making a three-pronged attack on the problem. With the cooperation of local councils, CCTV cameras are homing in on telephone kiosks used by hoaxers while the brigade and Cleveland Police can instantly trace mobile phone pranksters.

If youngsters make hoax calls from their own homes, BT can still trace the call even though the receiver has been replaced.

Leading firefighter Ray Dowson, of the brigade's education department, said: "We may not yet be on top of it but we are starting to bite into it, that is a certainty. What we need and what is coming are more CCTV cameras and then we will see a difference to the phone box menace.

"We have been going into schools, hammering the message home, for two years now and, hopefully, the message is getting through.''

There were 8,346 fires attended by the brigade across Teesside in the last year while appliances responded to 90.4 per cent of fire calls within the time set by the Home Office.