A report in today’s Independent claims that Andrew Sachs – who was of course subject to a ‘prank call’ from Jonathon Ross and Russell Brand – has himself pulled a similar stunt.

Just as the fuss over Call-Gate was beginning to die down, the paper claims that in the ‘80s, Sachs was a guest on his son’s radio show for Swansea Sound when a prank call was made to a member of the public.

Apparently, Sachs pretended to be the woman’s “long lost uncle” from Australia and during the call, he told the unsuspecting lady that he’d left Australia after “some trouble with the police” and went on to joke that he’d buried some jewels under a tree in a park.

It seems that many listeners were so convinced the call was real, they hotfooted it in their dozens to the park in question and began “tearing it up.”

The police were called to the park to halt the digging up that was taking place. Sachs is quoted in the paper as having said at the time, “Nice joke, but then we had a call from the police.

“The whole town had gone down to the park and torn [it] up.”

Sachs revealed details of the prank in an interview that was broadcast on Gay Byrne’s Irish talk show, The Late Late Show. It also forms part of a “greatest hits” DVD from the show.