FIRE chiefs have launched a bid to track down a serial hoax caller who has cost the fire service thousands of pounds - and you can listen to the recordings HERE and HERE.

The caller has struck five times in the last few months.

On one occasion, he claimed bins had been set alight in Green Lane, Great Lever. In another call, he said bins had been set alight in a garden in Great Lever.

Now recordings of his calls have been placed on The Bolton News website as part of our Shop a Hoaxer campaign.

And Bolton's most senior firefighter is urging the public to listen to the recordings and put a name to the hoaxer if they can.

Borough commander Vinny Simpson said: "My staff are in the business of saving lives and reducing the impact of fires and other emergencies, whether by attending incidents or through education and enforcement.

"Every hoax call we attend could have disastrous consequences for innocent people in real need, and for firefighters and other road users while fire engines, police and ambulance vehicles proceed under emergency conditions through heavy traffic."

Bolton's firefighters were called out to 306 hoaxes between April last year and March this year - nearly one a day - at a total cost of more than £500,000.

Offenders can be fined £80 on the spot or be sent to court, which could result in either a £5,000 fine or six months in prison.

To prevent hoax calls from mobile phones, the fire service operate a "two strikes" policy, requesting that mobile phones are blocked when more than one hoax call is made by the owner.

Ian Duckworth, watch commander at Bolton Central Fire Station, said: "Often it's children or teenagers messing around so we warn them and in the majority of cases they stop making hoax calls."