A TELEPHONE fault which cut a Bolton fundraising hotline has been blamed on . . . a group of hungry WALLABIES!

Fundraiser Sue Marsden called in BT engineers when she discovered the fault.

And she was amazed when they told her that wallabies living in a neighbour's field had eaten through her ground level cable!

Sue, chief fundraiser for the Bolton Lads' and Girls' Club multi-million new premises appeal, said: "When they told me, I just couldn't believe it!

"I've been having a bit of trouble with the phone line in my office recently. Six weeks ago my labrador bit through a cable and now this!"

She said that BT had found it difficult to locate the initial fault but once they did engineers managed to restore the line.

However Sue says that days later she discovered her phone was out of order again. This time a BT engineer told her the cause was hungry wallabies!

She added: "A neighbour keeps them as pets. They are lovely creatures. I'm sure they meant no harm!"

The creatures live in a secret location somewhere in Bolton. And Sue joked that once the phone line has been restored the appeal will continue to go on in leaps and bounds!

A spokesman for BT said engineers were now on "Wallaby Watch" in the area.

She added: "This is the first time we have had a case of wallabies chewing through our cables.

"Our ground level cables are reinforced with steel to protect them, but as the wallabies have clearly taken a fancy it was decided to replace them with an overhead cable."

The wallabies' owner, who wants to remain anonymous, says he does not believe they were responsible for the damage.

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