Nursery teacher faces jail for 999 loch hoax

Major hunt for kayak reported capsized in freezing waters

- TIM BUGLER

A NURSERY teacher who made a hoax 999 call which sparked a search of a loch in freezing conditions has been warned she faces jail.

Clair Frost, 35, denied sounding the false alarm from a landline at Killin Nursery School, Perthshire, where she claimed she saw an overturned kayak on Loch Tay.

But the caller's "distinctive, higher-pitched, childlike" tones were identified as hers by two colleagues and a police officer who had all known her for years.

Witnesses, who listened to a recording of the emergency call, also pointed out that the caller rendered the Scottish word loch as "lock" - as Frost was known to mispronounce it.

Stirling Sheriff Court heard the call was received by Scottish Fire and Rescue at 1.15 pm on January 17 this year. The caller said they thought they could see an upside down kayak at the "head of the loch". Asked if they could see anybody in the water, the caller replied: "I can't see that far enough."