Simon Surplice 'faked emergencies' to help lover Zoe Snook

Simon Surplice had repeated steamy phone calls with the woman and allegedly reported fictitious emergencies so she could meet strict guidelines that demand category A incidents are responded to within eight minutes, a professions hearing was told.

But despite the woman’s involvement, South Central Ambulance Service have refused to say who she was, if she was ever disciplined and how she came to leave her job.

Throughout the two-day Health Professionals Council hearing in London, the woman was only referred to as Miss X but was described as a “shining example” of how things should be done.

However, today the Daily Echo can reveal she is a married mum called Zoe Snook, who is believed to have left her job with the trust last summer after the alleged scandal was revealed.

Mrs Snook, understood to be aged in her 30s, took part in the saucy conversations with Mr Surplice which he made during work time. Among those calls, he also allegedly made bogus reports of seriously ill people he was treating to help massage her statistics and show that 75 per cent of emergency calls were being responded to within the government time limit.

The alleged calls included three reports while off duty and attending a wedding in 2009, when he claimed to be treating two seriously ill drunk people, and a potentially life threatening case involving an asthmatic girl.

Details of the lurid calls between the pair, which were all recorded routinely, were uncovered during a spotcheck into the volume and content of “routine calls” to the Eastleigh ambulance control room.

During this week’s hearing, transcripts were read out from various calls between the pair, which included suggestions they meet to have sex.

In one of the conversations, Mr Surplice asked Mrs Snook “Fancy spending an afternoon in bed?”

The HPC panel was also told how 46-year-old Mr Surplice’s emergency vehicle was found outside Mrs Snook’s home in Colden Common while he was on duty one afternoon.

The hearing was told that he had allegedly tried to disable the tracking device so he couldn’t be caught.

Other evidence put before the panel alleged that Mr Surplice and Mrs Snook diverted the air ambulance to a bogus emergency so it would perform a flypast at a colleague’s funeral in Bishops Waltham.

Mr Surplice is accused of altering statistics and making false claims by reporting fake category A incidents between October 2008 and May 2009.

He is also accused of disabling a tracking system on his emergency vehicle and visiting a colleague at her home address for personal reasons while using a trust vehicle.

He denies the allegations but admits making inappropriate phone calls while on duty.

Giving evidence during cross examination, Mr Surplice told the panel that his calls with Mrs Snook were “intimate banter”

and added: “Had I known that was going to be brought back 18 months after the event, I would not have done it. I deeply regret it.”

He told the hearing that the saucy calls with his lover did not distract him and references to romps with Mrs Snook were only a “fun suggestion”.

• The hearing has been adjourned until May 11.

'He was round all the time'

LAST night the Daily Echo visited Mrs Snook’s semi-detached family home in a quiet cul-de-sac in Colden Common but she was not available to comment.

However, neighbours confirmed Mr Surplice would be seen regularly at Ms Snook’s house, but he was known to be her “friend” rather than a lover.

One said: “I’m surprised. I read the article in the Echo but I never thought it was her.

“He used to be round all the time and park his vehicle outside.”

A spokesperson for South Central Ambulance Service said in a statement: “The third party involved in this incident no longer works for the trust. SCAS has a range of policies and procedures that deal with staffing matters, all incidents and employees involved, are managed in accordance with these.

“There is no further comment.”