Hoaxer rang girl's parents to tell them she was dying

As the hospital liaison worker told them their teenage daughter had been involved in a car crash and was fighting for her life, their world began to fall apart.

But the truth was very different. They had become the victims of a twisted hoaxer and 19-year-old Miss Carter was actually safe and well with a friend.

Her mobile phone had been taken by Christopher Winard who made the cruel call to her parents after retrieving their number from it.

Having given up the search for her mobile, Miss Carter had spent the night unaware that her parents - who live hundreds of miles away - were frantic with worry.

They rang the hospital where the caller claimed to work but it had no record of her so they tried every other hospital in the area and reported their daughter missing in a desperate search for news.

It was not until 11 hours later that Sarah rang home and was able to tell them she was perfectly okay.

Winard was arrested and initially denied stealing the phone or making the call but he eventually admitted the drunken hoax. He could have been jailed for up to six months for maliciously causing Miss Carter's parents needless anxiety but he walked free from court with a community sentence and an order to pay them compensation.

Miss Carter had recently moved from Southampton to Blackburn and was on a night out in January when she met Winard. They went to a nightclub and he left her coat and bag along with his own coat at the cloakroom, keeping the ticket, before saying he would get her a drink.

"That was the last she saw of him," Emma Keogh, prosecuting, told Blackburn Magistrates' Court. Instead, he took her bag, found her parents' number and at about 2.30am rang them, saying she was fighting for her life.

The court heard he claimed to be a liaison officer from the town's hospital, saying Miss Carter was in a critical condition after a car crash and they had gone through her personal possessions to contact next of kin.

"You can imagine the anguish this caused," said Mrs Keogh. "Her parents rang round all the hospitals in the North-West trying to find their daughter and reported her missing because they could not establish where she was.

"I can't think of a worse thing that anyone could do to parents, particularly when they are so far away and helpless."

Feeling foolish for losing her bag, but unable to be contacted by her parents, Miss Carter had meanwhile gone to stay with a friend.

She finally rang them at 1.30pm, bringing an end to their nightmare.

Winard, of Bamber Bridge, Preston, admitted theft and sending a grossly offensive message causing needless anxiety.

His counsel said the offence was "despicable" but insisted his behaviour was partly down to mixing alcohol with medication he took for a bipolar disorder.

Winard was made given community supervision for 18 months and ordered to pay £300 compensation to Miss Carter's parents and £84 compensation to her.