An unemployed man who used two phones to make prank calls to police and then put the handsets side by side so that officers would speak to each other was spared jail at Tuen Mun Court this morning.

Cheung Ho-fung, 25, who admitted earlier to making about 1,400 calls to 999 and several police stations, was sentenced to two months in prison. He pleaded guilty previously to making persistent phone calls.

The sentence was suspended for 18 months however, following Cheung’s plea to acting principal magistrate Li Wai-chi that he had already found a job, meeting a request from his probation officer.

“[Your act] has wasted a lot of police resources. Your reasoning was not convincing,” Li said.

In reports previously sought on Cheung, the man claimed that he committed the offence because he had grown “disgusted by the force” after reading media reports.

The magistrate said there were missing holes in his account, adding: “Apart from the mischief, you also had bad intent.”

Li also noted that Cheung did not cooperate with the probation officer, including ignoring his advice to stop dying his hair to red to increase his chances of getting a job.

Cheung, who claimed to have low intelligence, said the probation officer scared him and that his mental capacity restricted his will to comply with the officer’s requests.

“I will work hard and concentrate. Give me a second chance,” he pleaded to Li, after his request for another probation officer was denied.

The court previously heard that Cheung made about 600 calls on one phone and 800 on the other within nine days in October.

He was supposed to be sentenced last month after reports on his background and mental state were sought.

But Li further adjourned the sentence to today and sought another report to study sustainability for a probation order after the magistrate called previous reports worrying.

Cheung said he had got a job in a McDonald’s fast food restaurant and would start work this Friday.

Last year, police received more than 2.3 million calls but only only 56 per cent of them were genuine. The remaining 44 per cent - more than a million calls - were classified as nuisance calls or misdialed.

A police spokesman said that misuse of the emergency hotline would delay the handling of genuine emergencies. It could also endanger the lives of people at risk by postponing their access to the service.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Prank caller will go to work, not jail