EMERGENCY services have slammed hoax callers for putting lives at risk - after figures showed hundreds of pranksters called 999 last year.

The Press can reveal that almost one fake incident was called into the fire service, police and Yorkshire Ambulance Service almost once a week in 2014 while North Yorkshire Police were targeted 895 times.

A Freedom of Information request revealed the force has already recorded 92 misleading calls this year and says it has wasted 2,829 hours investigating the incidents since January 2012.

A spokeswoman said: "The police service is having to deal with unprecedented cuts with no reprieve in the demand for our service. Hoax calls to any emergency service take up valuable time and puts those in genuine need at risk.

"Anyone found making malicious hoax calls to the police will be dealt with robustly.

"These calls should not be confused with genuine calls made with good intent but that turn out to be false alarms. Anyone who believes they have information that the police need to know should not be discouraged in calling the police."

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service (NYFRS) attended 49 fake call-outs in York last year, and have so far this year taken nine calls which turned out to be false alarms.

In East Yorkshire, 82 people attempted to con Humberside Fire and Rescue Service, but only 30 of those were attended.

Peter Hudson, head of prevention and protection at NYFRS, said: "Thankfully North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service does not suffer greatly from hoax calls. Those that we do receive cause disruption to our emergency response capability and can delay life-saving emergency services.

"Technology now allows us to identify and locate the number calling us and we always pass that information to the police who will prosecute those making hoax calls."

Yorkshire Ambulance Service took 44 fake calls in the Vale of York CCG and 58 in East Riding of Yorkshire CCG in 2014.

Keith Evans, director of safety at Humberside Fire and Rescue Service, said: "Our control operators do an excellent job of screening these calls, but it is impossible to identify all of them and we will always err on the side of caution in these circumstances and send a crew.

"Although we have arrangements in place in order to ensure that there is always adequate cover to respond to incidents across the entire area Humberside Fire and Rescue Service covers, it is obviously preferable that none of our staff are engaged in attending a hoax call as this means that they are unavailable to attend other incidents."