A WOMAN who pesters police with needless 999 calls has been told to stop or face a jail term.

Claire Louise Brewitt, 36, is banned from contacting the police by either 101 or 999 unless it is a genuine emergency, James Yearsley, prosecuting, told York magistrates.

But at 4.52am and 5.12am on December 20, she rang police to tell them she was on her way to the home of a woman she claimed had offended her.

The court heard she was on a community order at the time for four other 999 calls that breached a criminal behaviour order (CBO) made in 2017 after a separate bench heard of the false 999 calls she kept making about non-existent crimes.

Brewitt, of Darcy Road, Selby, pleaded guilty to breaching the CBO on December 20. Magistrates revoked the community order and sentenced her for all six calls that breached the CBO.

Magistrates told her: "You have to stop going to the police. We understand you feel you need their support but it is the wrong support.

"If you continue to ring the police in this way, you are going to end up in prison."

They gave her a second community order with 20 days' rehabilitative activities and added an £85 statutory surcharge to the £1,200 plus she already owes in fines and other court orders.

For her, Phil Brown said she had a "number of complex vulnerabilities affecting her physical and mental health."

She rang the police for support when she felt she was in a situation where she was out of control.

When she rang police on December 20, she was drunk and believed the woman she wanted to see had made sexual allegations about her.

Alcohol was at the root of her offending, and various agencies were trying to tackle her drinking.

Mr Yearsley said during the first call on December 20, the control room operator told Brewitt the best way to avoid violence was to go back home.

Twenty minutes later, Brewitt made a similar call and got the same advice, but this time police officers were told to go and arrest her.