A WOMAN has been banned from contacting the police for three years because she repeatedly makes fake 999 calls.

Claire Louise Brewitt, 34, was also jailed for six months for crimes involving the emergency services.

York magistrates heard how she hit a paramedic and sent police officers to deal with non-existent crimes.

For her, Scott McLaughlin said: "She has got a terrible drinking problem. It has absolutely destroyed her life." All her offences were committed when in drink.

Martin Butterworth told York magistrates Brewitt's crimes were an "on-going course of conduct".

Magistrates made her subject to a three-year criminal behaviour order banning her from contacting North Yorkshire Police on 101 or 999 unless in a real emergency.

On January 5, she slammed a door onto a paramedic's shoulder and bruised him as he was trying to calm down an argument between her and her relatives.

He had gone to her home in response to a 999 call by her.

On January 21, she tried to disguise her identity when making a 999 call about a non-existent burglary, but police knew the phone number she was using from her previous contacts with them.

On February 14, she again dialled 999 with a report of a non-existent crime. Police went to the address she gave them and found no-one there.

She was on a eight-week suspended prison sentence at the time for making nuisance phone calls and had served a prison sentence in 2012 for wasting police time by falsely claiming there had been a crime.

Brewitt, of no fixed address and formerly of Darcy Road, Selby, denied wasting police time, making a nuisance phone call and assault. She was convicted in her absence after she failed to attend court for her trial. Arrested on warrant, she admitted failure to attend court.

She was ordered to serve the eight-week prison sentence plus 18 weeks for her most recent crimes.

Mr McLaughlin said the paramedic had "got in the way" and Brewitt hadn't deliberately hit him.

She was trying to lead a law-abiding life, but at times she felt she was left without support.