Man calls 999 saying he put his ‘child on prepare tracks’ after discovering his spouse ‘dishonest’
Shahid Khan, 31, and Zaynul Shaffi, 44, used different handsets and SIMs and changed their accents to try to cover their tracks as they made no fewer than 122 calls on 78 days in 2024 and 2025
Birmingham Crown Court heard the bizarre details(Image: BPM Media)
Two cruel pranksters falsely claimed a baby had been abandoned on railway tracks, triggering a massive police operation.
Shahid Khan, 31, and Zaynul Shaffi, 44, used various mobile phones and SIM cards and altered their accents in an attempt to conceal their identities as they made a staggering 122 calls over 78 days in 2024 and 2025.
The hoax calls drained an estimated £100,000 of public funds in squandered emergency resources across the West Midlands, according to the police. The pair also falsely reported that they had been shot and that they had murdered their pregnant wife and family. They gave false details, then watched as emergency services arrived at the scenes, reports Birmingham Live.
In one call, one of the men dialled 999 to claim he had left a baby named Josh on train tracks after discovering his wife was unfaithful in August 2024.
During the police response, Shaffi texted Khan saying: “Got the chopper (helicopter) out”, with Khan then asking him to film it. Almost 20 police vehicles and over 30 officers were dispatched to the scene, with additional staff and officers coordinating the search from afar.
West Midlands Police also discovered a message from Shaffi responding to a news article about a bomb hoax. Shaffi wrote: “They’re not like us man, we do our thing undetected.”
Shaffi, of Barrows Road, Sparkbrook, pleaded guilty to intentionally/recklessly causing a public nuisance and was sentenced to three years in prison at Birmingham Crown Court on Monday, April 7.
Khan, from Whichford Grove, Bordesley Green, was deemed unfit to stand trial, but a jury found him to have carried out the acts charged. He will receive his sentence at a later date.
Following the case, Det Sgt Ross Somerfield, of Birmingham CID, commented: “The calls were often very serious and sinister, resulting in immediate responses from specialist officers including firearms and drone units.
“That would then obviously have the knock-on effect of potentially delaying our response to genuine emergencies. They would also claim to have seen suspects in murder investigations.
“They seemed to have revelled in the attention that their calls were getting and took pride in their attempts to hide their tracks through the use of different SIM cards. But we were able to link the hoax calls and used sophisticated digital policing techniques to identify and arrest the men.”
Ch Supt Sally Simpson, head of the Force Contact department, stated: “Hoax calls are not victimless crimes. They have real world consequences and can mean the difference between us getting to an emergency in time to stop a crime or stop someone coming to harm, and us not getting there in time.
“We work 24/7 to respond to the public and provide the best service possible. Anyone who deliberately tries to stop us from doing that should know that we will take action, and as this case shows, they face the possibility of jail time.”
