Four years for 10,000-call phone pervert

A supermarket worker who made at least 10,000 obscene phone calls to women was yesterday jailed for four years.

Allan Snell, 39, believed to be one of Britain's most prolific phone perverts, bombarded victims with up to 100 sickening calls every day from his six mobiles. On one phone he made 6,000 calls in six weeks. Complaints flooded in to police from across the UK and hundreds more cases may have gone unreported.

Snell, of Thornton Cleveleys, near Blackpool, admitted a charge of being a public nuisance at Preston Crown Court. On one occasion Snell had threatened to slit a woman's throat.

He used pay-as-you-go mobiles registered to previous owners and spent £200 of his £240 weekly pay on phone cards.