FIRE chiefs have issued a stark warning to prank callers using mobile phones: You will be barred.

The threat came after a malicious caller was stopped from using his mobile following a hoax fire in East Crescent, Accrington, at 8pm on Wednesday.

The fire service's control centre, in Fulwood, Preston, telephoned the caller's phone company who promptly disconnected the sim card, making the phone useless.

A spokesperson for Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service said the action was one of only a handful made in the area and the county as a whole. He said the action was made possible because of a national agreement made with the phone companies three years ago.

Hoax callers are sent a text message notifying them that they made a prank call and if they repeat the offence their phone will be disconnected.

The move was aimed at cutting the number of malicious calls from pay-as-you-go phones, which were previously untraceable.

A spokesman for the fire service said: "Now there is no where left to hide.

"Malicious calls had dropped from 4,795 in 1992 to 1,389 last year. This drop came about from the use of technology, which meant we could trace hoax calls back to land lines, phone boxes and even tariffed mobiles.

"The prospect of being caught had put a lot of people off. But until the recent agreement we were unable to do anything about pay-as-you-go. Now we can.

"Hoax calls cost lives. A five-year-old boy died at a house fire in Blackpool in 1996. In that case a hoax call reported a fire at the town's Victoria Hospital which took engine's away from the boy's house. Even though the back-up crews got there in under four minutes, precious seconds were lost and the little boy died."

Sub-officer Steve Harrison said: "We knew the caller on Wednesday night had made several prank calls to police and fire services and we decided enough was enough. We will investigate all prank calls and if we catch them they will be prosecuted."