A woman who lied to a triple zero operator and emergency services about her sister attempting suicide – to get back at her during a dispute – has faced police herself in court.
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Brooke Fowler, 21, called triple zero at 11.19pm on March 7 last year, asking for police and ambulance to be sent to a Hibbert Court home.
She told the operator her sister had tried to hang herself, cut her wrists and had been using drugs.
Four minutes later, at 11.23pm, Fowler again called triple zero and said she could see smoke and flames coming from the same Wodonga house, where she believed a woman and child were inside.
She used a fake name, but gave the operator the real number of another sister’s mobile phone she was using.
When emergency services were quickly dispatched to the house, they found no fire and that the woman inside had not harmed herself.
Police prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Penny Lawler told Wodonga Magistrates Court this week that Fowler admitted to making the calls, when interviewed by officers, saying she and her sister were having an ongoing dispute.
She pleaded guilty to making a false report to police.
Magistrate Ian Watkins sentenced her to an eight-month community corrections order, ordering her to complete 60 hours of community work.
“I hope you appreciate the seriousness of fake calls to emergency services,” he said.
“While the fire brigade go to that call, they can’t attend another call where there might be a real fire.”
Fowler was also completing community work for another incident in March 2017, where she was speeding at 160km/h on the Hume Freeway on the way to her grandfather’s funeral and took a photo of the dashboard to send to her mum.
