Hoax callers have cost Surrey Fire and Rescue £33,547 over the past three years.

In total, 894 hoax calls were made between December 2008 and November 2011 and fire crews wasted more than 100 hours attending them.

However, the figures, obtained through a Freedom of Information request showed the number of hoax calls decreased by a third from 380 in 2009 to 251 in 2011.

The overall cost also been reduced by 20 per cent as a result - £12,632 in 2008-09 and £10,111 in 2010-11.

The costs are particularly significant as Surrey Fire and Rescue service aim to save £2.7m over four years following a public consultation.

The figures put Surrey in the top performing quartile for reducing hoax calls in the country, according to Simon Moore, assistant chief fire officer for Surrey Fire and Rescue.

He said: “The scale of hoax calls in Surrey is really very encouraging - it’s as good as it gets in the country “Twenty-five years ago, when I joined as a fire fighter, it seemed to be almost every shift you’d be going out to a deliberate false alarm. That just isn’t the case anymore in Surrey."

The improvement is due to prevention work in schools, the Firewise Scheme, and the direct challenge procedure.

Mr Moore said: “Our control room has a call challenge procedure. If they think it’s a hoax call, your location is flagged up to the control room operator.

“So if you say you can see a fire, but it’s actually 10 miles away, clearly you can’t see the address that you say you can.”

Last year, a teenager received a custodial sentence after making a hoax call that caused the evacuation of the Heart Shopping Centre in Walton.

Mr Moore said: “It’s a criminal act; it’s highly irresponsible, and an entirely avoidable call.

“The current penalty if caught and prosecuted can be up to a £5,000 fine or six months in prison.”