Mother stopped as she walked along promenade by police after someone called 999 to report that her daughter might be COLD

Paula Andrew was playing on promenade with nine-month-old daughter

A police van and two officers turned up and began to question her

They said an anonymous 999 call had said her baby daughter looked cold

Dressed in woolly tights, leggings, an all-in-one vest and fleecy top, nine-month-old Maddy Andrew seemed well wrapped up for winter.

But that did not stop a passer-by dialling 999 to report her mother Paula for exposing a child to the cold.

Two policemen were immediately sent to Scarborough seafront to question her about Maddy’s welfare.

Paula Andrew was playing on the promenade with her nine-month-old daughter Maddy when a police van and two officers turned up and began to question her

‘We’d not even been there ten minutes when the police turned up,’ said Mrs Andrew, who has two other children aged 12 and 14.

‘They could see everything was OK, but they told me that they’d had an anonymous call saying there was a little girl playing on the promenade and she was cold.

‘I explained that she was fine and Maddy certainly looked fine. I told them that we came out to the prom all the time to play. I am not convinced police should be harassing mums playing with their babies.’

Mrs Andrew, who refused to give her name to the officers, said one had claimed it was their duty to ‘keep an eye on these things’.

The temperature was 6.7C when she was interrogated last Friday.

The nutritionist, 43, who has two older children aged 14 and 12, was told an anonymous 999 call had alleged her baby daughter looked cold

The 43-year-old nutritionist said: ‘Maddy was covered up and wasn’t cold, that was clear. It simply didn’t merit the hassle.

‘Where do you draw the line? Do you police children wearing too many clothes on the beach in summer? Can people dial 999 if they suspect a parent hasn’t put enough sun cream on a youngster? They’d be better off policing McDonald’s and checking that children are not eating too much in there.’

Mrs Andrew was on the promenade with Maddy while her financier husband Mike, 49, was surfing off the beach.

She added: ‘It can take more than an hour for police to turn up if I call in complaining about yobs at the back of my house and sometimes they don’t attend at all, but an anonymous call can send them racing to the promenade.’

When one of the policemen asked Mrs Andrew her name, she responded: ‘This is ridiculous.’

Mrs Andrew was with her daughter on the promenade, while her financier husband Mike, 49, was surfing off the beach at Scarborough. She had been out of the car for less than 10 minutes when the police arrived

After refusing to reveal who she was, Mrs Andrew, from Scarborough, was asked: ‘So you don’t want to co-operate?’ She said: ‘I told them that it was a mother’s right to play with her daughter and it wasn’t a co-operation thing.

‘I added that they’d be taking her to the social workers next if I gave them my details. I wasn’t doing anything wrong, so I walked off.’

A North Yorkshire Police spokesman said yesterday : ‘All reports concerning the safety of children are taken very seriously by North Yorkshire Police and must be properly checked out.’

But Stephen Hayes, an ex-policeman and writer, said the case typified what was wrong with modern policing.

‘This is by far the barmiest cold case I have ever come across,’ he added. ‘Do officers now need a thermometer to take children’s temperatures along with their truncheons? The mother is clearly not committing a crime by taking her child for a walk along the promenade.