He called 999 for ‘his own protection’ but ended up in the cells instead

Ryan Ferguson told police he was a “far-right journalist” and has previously been pictured wearing clothing with neo-Nazi connotations

A “far-right journalist” and convicted racist football thug made three false calls to 999 and claimed it was for his “protection”.

Ryan Ferguson, 25, made three calls to the emergency services in November of last year and told the call handler that he needed the police because three men were fighting.

However, when Merseyside Police attended on the first occasion, the only person being hostile was the defendant himself, and by the third incident, officers didn’t dispatch anyone to the scene at all because they recognised Ferguson’s phone number as the one used to make the fake reports. A magistrate at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court told the defendant yesterday he had created “a fictitious incident to spark a significant response from the police”.

The court heard today, Monday, that on November 8 2024, Ferguson “called 999 from a mobile number and reported three males fighting”. Anthony Carey, prosecuting, said: “Officers attended and found a male matching the description who was hostile to officers. This male was the defendant.”

The court heard four police vehicles had been dispatched to the scene on Bank Road in Bootle and officers carried out enquiries but residents had said no incident had taken place. Two days later, Ferguson made two further calls to 999 to request the police, firstly to Everton Brow and then to Bayhorse Lane in Liverpool’s city centre, alleging again a similar incident to before of three males fighting.

Mr Carey said in the first instance a police vehicle was sent and an “intense search” was carried out, but no disturbance was found. The court heard when another call was made to police it was flagged as potentially being a false call. CCTV was checked in the surrounding area and again no disturbance was found.

The court heard the defendant was arrested at his hostel on November 15. Two phones were recovered from his room. He pointed to one and said “that is the phone I used to make the calls”, before giving officers the PIN number. The defendant later gave a no comment interview, but did confirm he was “a football hooligan and a far-right journalist”.

Mr Carey said the defendant had 20 previous convictions for 29 offences, the most recent being a sentence of 12 weeks in May 2024 for sending malicious communications.

James Lefroy, defending, told the court that the case was “very unusual and unique” as the prosecution had asked for a custodial sentence. He said the offences took place nine months ago and the defendant had no been in further trouble.

He said a pre-sentence report from the Probation Service had “exclusively discussed Mr Ferguson’s politics and made plain they do not think fondly of his views”. Mr Lefroy added: “I personally hold closer views to hers than Mr Ferguson’s, but we are not here to pass judgments on people’s politics and what they say or do.”

He told the court that the defendant finds himself the subject of abuse because of his political views and “called the police for his protection”. However, the defence solicitor added that Ferguson accepted the “perpetrators were not in the same location” so pleaded guilty to the charges.

Regarding his client’s personal mitigation, Mr Lefroy told the court: ” [He] has views but is not so closed that he is not willing to discuss or engage with the subject. He has met ex-members of the far-right and is interested in that and is open to discussion. It seems his views are moderating and he has been out of trouble for the past eight months.

“He is clearly a man with issues. We only send people to prison if we need to do so. He needs to understand why his views need to be moderated. It’s perfectly right to hold political views but he needs to know to deal with them in a constructive way.”

Ferguson previously pleaded guilty to three counts of causing wasteful employment of police and was committed to the court for sentencing.

Peter Mawdsley, chair of the bench of magistrates which presided over the case, told Ferguson that the offences before the court were “very serious”. He added: “These offences show that you gave a description of a fictitious incident to spark a significant response from the police.”

The chair added the bench deemed the offences to cause a high risk of serious harm to the wider public because the allocation of police resources would have been taken away from other incidents. Ferguson, who wore a white shirt and sported short brown hair, was sentenced to 17 weeks’ immediate custody.

He was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge and court costs totalling £239. The bench also imposed a two-year criminal behaviour order, the particulars being the defendant must not call 999 if not reporting a genuine emergency or concern and must surrender his phone if asked to by a Merseyside Police officer.

Ferguson, who was supported in court by his mum, has previously appeared in the ECHO for his previous offending, as well as his support of the far-right. In May this year, Ferguson was pictured at a Britain First march wearing a t-shirt with widely recognised neo-nazi connotations.

When contacted by the ECHO regarding the clothing, he said her was unable to comment because the political party he worked for prevented him from giving statements. Ferguson’s previous convictions include breaching football banning orders on a number of occasions and a nine-month prison sentence for racially abusing a football.

Liverpool Echo