A 53-year-old Sydney man has appeared in court today charged with making hundreds of threatening and obscene phone calls to victims across the eastern seaboard.
“In February, detectives from St George Police Area Command established Strike Force Wheller to investigate reports of threatening, intimidating and sexually-explicit phone calls being made to a number of men and women, which were suspected to be linked,” NSW Police said in a statement.
Inquiries revealed about 100 people across NSW, Victoria and Queensland had been receiving calls of a similar nature since 2018, with the calls linked to more than a dozen mobile numbers.
Detectives arrested the 53-year-old after pulling over his vehicle at Dover Heights in Sydney’s eastern suburbs at around 7.30am yesterday. During a search of the man, police seized two mobile phones.
A short time later, investigators executed a search warrant at a nearby home, where they seized various items relevant to the investigation, including a further eight mobile phones.
The Dover Heights man was charged with 25 counts of use carriage service to menace/harass/offend, and two counts each of use carriage service to threaten to kill and use carriage service to threaten serious harm.
Police will allege in court that the man has made multiple calls of a threatening and/or sexually explicit nature to 29 people since 2018. He has been denied bail.
Police say investigations under Strike Force Wheller are ongoing and further charges are expected.
