A TEENAGER who called 999 after his parents banned him from playing on his Xbox is being used as an example of time wasting calls received by police.

Every year during holiday time call handlers are inundated by bored school children with hoax and spurious calls.

But is not just youngsters, and officers are also keen to highlight ridiculous calls from adults.

One man called reporting concern for two ducks sitting by the side of a boating lake in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, while a drunken man spent several minutes repeatedly asking a call handler to put him through to a particular officer.

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People also ring 999 to ask for the numbers of their local MP, another police force or other agency.

Chief Inspector Stu Exley, head of communications for the force, said: "The 999 system is for use in an emergency, for example when life is at risk or a crime is in progress.

"But it seems a lot of people cannot get this into their heads, and use the number almost as a free phone book."

Silent or frivolous calls increases response times and stops police, fire and ambulance services dealing with genuine emergencies.

These are as well as the usual time-wasting calls from people who shout abuse at the communications handler and then hang up, hoax bomb callers and teenagers ‘dared’ by their friends to ring 999 and ask for the police.

The problem seems to worsen at school holiday-time and with the approaching summer vacation, police chiefs are urging both teenagers and adults not to abuse the facility.

Between April 1 and March 31 this year 59,486 incidents were recorded after a ‘999’ call made to Durham Constabulary.

Of these, 2,143 were classed as abandoned/silent calls and a further 4,556 as hoaxes.

Fewer than half the incidents recorded, 27,749, were logged as "immediate" or "priority" by the force.

Ch Insp Exley added: "We aim to answer emergency calls within ten seconds and if our handlers are tied up dealing with hoax or frivolous calls there is a risk someone reporting a genuine emergency may not be able to get through."

If people want to call the police on a non-urgent matter they should ring 0345 6060 365.