A POLICE inspector has warned people who make prank and nuisance calls that they will be caught.

The warning follows a 15-year-old local youth receiving a police warning after he was found to have made prank calls to Mangiamo's restaurant in Darwen.

Inspector Graham Ashcroft said: "He phoned three times saying he was going to bomb the shop and made other threats as well.

"We arrested the youth who admitted the offence and he was given a final warning -- which means the next time he is in trouble he will go before a court."

Insp Ashcroft said such phone calls were an example of the kinds of offences the police in Darwen had to deal with on a day-to-day basis. Nuisance calls caused a lot of distress -- and the people who received this one had been particularly upset as it had come soon after the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York.

Insp Ashcroft said: "The people were terrified."

And he warned: "We can trace any kind of call these days, including calls made from mobile phones, so the warning to people who make these calls is that we will catch you."

He added he would like to thank the officer in charge of the case PC Shelley Hubbard and said she had "done good work in tracing the call."

He said people saw these kind of calls as a prank or a joke but they were serious criminal offences.