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A pensioner made “countless” nuisance and abusive phone calls to the emergency services, including dialling 999 to demand some milk.

Ninety-year-old Lena Taylor branded the call handlers “w*****s” and “b******s” during some of the telephone conversations, which happened repeatedly over a four-month period.

A court was told that a total of 166 incidents where the pensioner had rang 101 or 999 were logged but that she’d made “numerous phone calls” on each of those incidents.

Prosecutors said Taylor repeatedly said she was going to burn down her home, needed medical assistance when she did not or shouted abuse during the nuisance calls.

(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)

She appeared at North Tyneside Magistrates’ Court on Friday, where she pleaded guilty to a malicious communications offences.

James Long, prosecuting, said the pensioner began ringing the emergency services on the 999 and 101 numbers on January 1 this year.

“It’s said that 166 incidents have been created linked to her home address number but, in fact, there are a lot more phone calls than that as there is more than one call in relation to each incident,” Mr Long said.

“She has demanded an ambulance, threatened to self-harm, made threats to set her house on fire and demanded medical assistance.

“On one occasion, she said she was unhappy having to wait for social services to bring her milk and demanded milk.

“There’s some unpleasant swearing in some of the phone calls where she calls people stupid b******s and w******s.

“There are countless nuisance phone calls over a period of time to the emergency services.”

Representing herself in court, Taylor, of Churchill Street, Wallsend, said: “This is all about social services harassment and harassment from the police.

“I go to hospital then I get sent home again. I have to do my own shopping, there’s no food in the house. I go to bingo and I talk to the Samaritans.”

District Judge Bernard Begley asked the pensioner, who has no past convictions, if she realised the impact she was having on the resources of the emergency services.

Taylor responded: “They’re the ones that are causing it. The hospital are putting it down to my COPD - this is not caused by my COPD, this is stress-related.”

The pensioner claimed she couldn’t promise that she wouldn’t make further nuisance calls to the emergency services and, when told she could face a possible prison sentence if she continued, she added: “I don’t care one little bit.”

Giving Taylor a two-year conditional discharge, District Judge Begley said: “What you’re doing is taking resources potentially away from people that definitely need it.

“You have never been in trouble before and you have pleaded guilty to the offence and I’m taking everything you have told me into account.”

Taylor was also ordered to pay £85 costs and a £20 victim surcharge.

A North East Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “Frequent callers take up considerable time for our service, which can impact on our response to other patients.

"We recognise that often the reason someone becomes a frequent caller to 999 services is due to an unmet need, be it social or medical and we have a dedicated team who proactively work with GPs, mental health and community healthcare partners to put plans in place to support such callers the best we can.

"Occasionally this doesn’t work and we work with other agencies to explore options to manage the issue.

"Whilst we will explore all opportunities to support frequent callers, we take a zero tolerance approach to any form of abuse against our staff. Our people come to work to help the public of the North East and do not deserve to be abused in the course of doing their job."