staff at a travel shop have contacted police after receiving crank calls every day for eight years.

As well as thousands of calls, the unidentified woman is believed to have made scores of bogus purchases in the firm's name.

Workers at Wallace Arnold travel agents, Newcastle, are now helping Northumbria Police to try and catch the pest. But officers have been unable to trap the woman because the calls come from telephone booths all over Tyneside.

The woman has left some staff terrified after describing what they are wearing and where they have been on holiday.

A spokesman for Northumbria Police said: "The incidents were reported to us earlier this year, but unfortunately it remains undetected.

"The firm informed us it had been going on for more than eight years. The numbers have either been withheld, or the calls have been made from telephone kiosks, by a female.