AN UNEMPLOYED man was remanded for psychiatric observation on Monday after he was produced in court to face three charges of making nuisance calls to the police emergency line.

Pay Kiaw Keng, 49, is looking at spending his Chinese New Year at the Institute of Mental Health, where he will be assessed.

He is scheduled to be back in court on Feb 11.

He has been accused of making a call to the 999 number in Hougang Point shopping mall last Saturday afternoon, at about 4.40pm with intent to annoy whomever answered the call.

If convicted on this charge, he could be fined up to $10,000 or jailed up to two years or both.

The other two charges are for two pre-dawn nuisance calls - made 14 minutes apart - from a coffeeshop in Block 631 along Hougang Avenue 8 last Nov 13.

These two alleged offences under the Miscellaneous Offences Act each carry a maximum fine of $5,000 or a maximum jail term of one year or both.

Going by police statistics on the number of prank calls handled by police operators made between 2004 and 2006, three in 10 are genuine emergencies.