A MOTHER suffered every parent's nightmare after being woken in the middle of the night to be told her daughter had suffered horrific injuries in a motorway accident.

But 90 panic stricken minutes later it became clear she had been the victim of a cruel hoax from a malicious caller who, it appeared, had chosen her number completely at random.

Jacqueline Freedom, 36, who lives with her six children in Shepway, Maidstone, was asleep in bed when the telephone rang just before 2am.

She said: "The person on the other end of the line said her name was PC Carter and that she was sorry to inform me that my daughter had been involved in a serious accident on the M25. She told me I was urgently needed at Maidstone Hospital. I dropped the phone and screamed my other children awake. It was my worst nightmare come true."

Her second eldest daughter hairdresser Hannah, 18, was on a night out with her boyfriend and had not returned home.

Unable to make outgoing calls on her phone, and still dressed in her nightclothes, Mrs Freedom drove the half mile to her sister's home in shock struggling to take in the news.

"In the short time it took me to get there I had switched off Hannah's ventilator and buried her. I was convinced the worst had happened."

However, when Mrs Freedom arrived home 15 minutes later with her sister Julie and partner Chris, she found her nine-year-old daughter Briony sobbing on the stairs.

The "police officer" had called back to say there had been a terrible mistake and that another girl, not Hannah, had been seriously hurt.

Hannah was finally tracked down to Canterbury where she was still at a nightclub, completely oblivious to the drama.

Mrs Freedom said: "I don't want any other mother to go through what I had to go through. This girl must realise the consequences of her actions before she does it again."

A police spokesman said: "We have received a complaint regarding this call and are investigating. Action will be taken against the person responsible."