Woman made 1,100 calls to Hampshire police

Yet Ellen Randell used Hampshire police’s 999 number to make more than 1,000 hoax calls.

She plagued the constabulary’s control room with false reports that she had been injured, claiming she had witnessed crimes and even just to have a chat.

Southampton Magistrates’ Court heard how Randell, 46, made about 1,100 calls in total.

Hampshire police said her actions put lives at risk as she tied up lines that could have prevented genuine calls getting through.

In some cases officers were deployed to investigate her claims, only to find the report had been made up.

Randell admitted a charge of harassing Hampshire police between 2008 and June 2009.

The court heard how she often made the calls while drunk, and had mental health problems.

Officers also regularly visited Randell at her home in Collier Close, Southampton, to try to help sort out her problems and prevent her making the time-wasting calls.

The court heard she had not been making the calls since she had started a stable relationship and sought help for her problems.

Randell was given a supervision order for a year. She was also handed a restraining order, saying she should only call Hampshire police in the case of a genuine emergency.

District Judge Calloway said: “The police have got an extremely difficult and important job to do and the court has a duty to protect them.”

Chief Insp Steve Fower, of Hampshire police, said: “We didn’t know whether these calls were genuine but they all have to be risk-assessed and that all takes up valuable time. I would say that the calls, and the amount of them, took up significant time and were a substantial nuisance. There is also the risk to officers and the public when we deploy an emergency response, so it is fair to say that lives are put at risk when hoax calls are made.

“I welcome the sentence and would hope this serves as a warning to other people that we will prosecute anyone who is identified as making hoax calls to the emergency services.”