Woman banned from owning phone is jailed for making hundreds of 999 calls

A 47-year-old woman has been jailed after making hundreds of nuisance calls to 999.

Louise Hathaway, of Havant, Hampshire, was already banned from calling 999 or 101 unless in an emergency, and barred from possessing a mobile phone until 2022 after an order was made in 2019.

However, Portsmouth Crown Court heard she breached that order repeatedly, makings hundreds of calls to the emergency number.

Hampshire Police said her calls were not emergencies and she would often be abusive to the call handlers.

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She also hit and spat at emergency workers in separate incidents.

On 24 March, 2019, paramedics who were sent to an address in Portsmouth following a concern for welfare, but Hathaway hit one of them on the arm and became verbally abusive.

Then, on 12 December, 2019, she spat at an officer responding to one of her fraudulent calls.

Hampshire Police said her calls were made between 16 October and 31 October, 2019, and 31 March and 27 May, 2020 – the height of the first coronavirus lockdown.

Hathaway was found guilty of two counts of assaulting an emergency worker and admitted 65 counts of breaching a criminal behaviour order. She was sentenced on 15 January.

Hampshire Police’s Inspector Glen Stanford said: “This relentless abuse of the emergency contact number persistently impacted on the call handlers’ ability to answer genuine calls.

“Call handlers should also be able to work without being verbally abused.

“It is disappointing to see Hathaway repeatedly ignore the criminal behaviour order she had received.”

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