A SERIAL hoaxer is putting lives at risk by bombarding fire stations across Bolton with false calls claiming people are trapped in non-existant house fires.

Firefighters at Farnworth have built up a detailed dossier of the hoaxer's antics over recent months tracking his movements and calls from phone boxes around the town in the hope of helping detectives catch him..

Officers say the hoaxer follows a routine of first using a phone box in Highfield Road, Farnworth, but they believe calls made from other phone boxes in other areas of Bolton are likely to be the work of the same person.

The hoaxer, who targets the brigade mainly at the weekend, called from the phone box just after 11pm on Saturday.

"The caller claimed that a child was trapped in a house fire in a top floor flat in Farnworth," said fire chief Sub Officer Rob Wight. "We have to take every call we get seriously and this was no exception."

Two fire engines were sent from Farnworth with a further engine being despatched from Bolton but when they arrived there was no fire. It costs the brigade £1,000 every time a fire engine is called out.

Sub officer Wight said: "This is a waste of our resources and when you have three fire engines all out at a job which does not exist there may a real fire somewhere that we would be unable to attend.

"It goes without saying that this person is putting lives at risk and we want them to stop or to be caught."