A DISTRESS call over three people abandoning a boat which prompted a major search of the Moray coast is thought to be a hoax.

The mayday message which was sent around 5.50pm on Monday resulted in the launching of lifeboats while an Inverness-based coastguard helicopter was scouring an area from Whitehills to Gardenstown with the help of a local fishing boats.

Coastguards are now "fairly confident" the message which led to the alert was a hoax.

HM Coastguard duty controller Matthew West said: "Given the fact that no further information has come forward regarding last night's incident in the Moray Firth, we are now fairly confident that this was a hoax call.

"If we think someone's in danger or in trouble we will always search for them rather than risk loss of life.

"We would like to take this opportunity to remind people that making deliberate, false or misleading calls is against the law and we treat it very seriously.

"We keep a record of these calls and hold those records as evidence for future prosecutions.

"Have no doubt, if you've been identified as making a hoax call, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency will seek to prosecute offenders to the fullest extent of the law."

The operation was suspended at around 10.30pm on Monday and nobody was reported missing.

Mr West added: "Not only do hoax calls waste the valuable time of our Coastguard officers, volunteers and resources such as the RNLI and our aircraft while searching; it also may be putting other lives at risk by diverting our resources away from genuine emergencies.

"It also puts our emergency services' crews lives at risk as they searched for nearly five hours in rough weather conditions with nothing found."