A creep who bombarded the emergency services with hundreds of nuisance calls so he could pester the operators about their feet has been spared jail.
Richard Cove, 49, made repeated bogus calls to the police’s non-emergency 101 line so he could ‘indulge his sexual foot fetish’, Worthing Magistrates Court heard.
Already well-known to NHS 111 operators as ‘The Foot Fetish Caller’, he would give his name as Michael Foot or Helen Cheeseman to manufacture a conversation.
Cove would then steer the chat to asking about the size of their feet or trying to manipulate call handlers into saying the phrases ‘cheesy feet’ or ‘smelly feet’.
The pervert pleaded guilty to wasting hours of police time over the calls to the 101 number and was given a 10-week prison sentence, suspended for 24 months.
He previously received a 16 week prison sentence suspended for two years over calls to the NHS 111 line.
Investigating officer, Rose Horan, said of the latest weird offences: ‘A number of police staff reported strikingly similar conversations from withheld numbers which we were able to link to Richard Cove.
‘He pretended to be an elderly woman so that he could manipulate call takers into giving him time and attention.
‘He specifically targeted female officers, some in busy departments dealing with serious sexual offences and online child abuse, wasting scarce public resources to indulge his sexual fetish.’
Natalie Roepke, prosecuting, had told the court: ‘He was asking the call handlers about their feet and height and telling them about his feet.
‘He admitted a sexual foot fetish which he indulges during the calls.
‘He said he is aroused by feet and especially aroused by the thought of the call handlers feet.’
Cove, who runs an eBay selling business from home, said: ‘What I did was very silly.
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‘I enjoyed talking about feet, but I made it clear to police I wasn’t getting off on it, there was no masturbation.’
He was issued with a five-year Criminal Behaviour Order preventing him from contacting 999 unless in a genuine emergency and stipulating that he uses his real name and does not withhold his telephone number.
Cove must also report non-emergency matters in person at a police station, providing correct details. He was also ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work and pay court costs of £85.
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