Crewe woman jailed for Arson

A 31-year-old woman who made over 160 hoax calls to police and set fire to a flat in Crewe has been jailed.

Polly Swindail, of Sable Road, Shavington, appeared at Chester Crown Court on Friday 26 July where she was sentenced to 12 months in prison.

She had previously pleaded guilty to arson. 

Swindail was also handed a two-year criminal behaviour order which prevents her contacting the 999-telephone service unless it’s a genuine emergency.

The court heard how between 1 August 2023 and 23 November 2023, Swindail contacted Cheshire Police via 999 a total of 129 times.

On these calls she was often abusive to call handlers and made comments which made little sense and resulted in officers attending her home address to check she was safe and well.

On 23 November 2023, when officers attended her address and she was arrested for misuse of the 999 system, due to it being clear there was no emergency and the repeated calls she had made previously.

When she was released, one of her conditions stated she must not make malicious calls to emergency services, however she made a further 25 calls to police of an abusive and false nature.

On 2 January 2024, police received a call from Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service stating they had received a report of a house fire at an address in Shavington and people were trapped.

They stated the caller was abusive to the call handler and the number was linked to Swindail.

On attendance, emergency services found a fire had been started in the bedroom of Swindail’s address and three nearby properties were evacuated as a precaution.

Firefighters entered the scene and stated that there was a bin in the room with firelighters inside, suggesting it had been started deliberately.

Swindail was subsequently arrested and later charged with arson.

Following the sentencing DC Jamie Roberts said:

“I welcome the sentence handed to Swindail today and hope this sends out a strong message that abusing the emergency number is not acceptable and will be dealt with robust.

“Calling 999 in this manner is not only a waste of police resources and time, but also takes call handlers and officers away from dealing with other incidents and assisting people who are truly in need of help.

“Not only did Swindail make countless malicious 999 calls, but she also deliberately set fire to her flat.

“This could very easily have caused injury or even worse if it had not been put out by our colleagues at Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service.”