A HOAX caller who repeatedly wastes police time has failed to win back her freedom.

York magistrates jailed Claire Louise Brewitt, 36, for 16 weeks last month after hearing how she had made a series of hoax 999 and 101 calls in April and May.

It was the latest in several convictions for similar offences and came after she had been given a string of non-custodial sentences.

She appealed to York Crown Court on the grounds a district judge had given her a community order following those offences for a similar offence.

Her barrister Ben Thomas said she had been making good progress in tackling her problems and asked for her to be allowed to continue working with probation on the order.

But Recorder Tahir Khan, sitting with two magistrates, dismissed her appeal.

“The sentence of 16 weeks in total is above criticism,” he said.

Brewitt, of Crockets Court, Selby, pleaded guilty to breaching a criminal behaviour order (CBO) made in June 2017 which bans her from contacting the emergency services except in a genuine emergency.

Laurie Scott, prosecuting, said in May 2017, when on a community order of assaulting her mother, Brewitt made four hoax calls to police, breaching the CBO.

York magistrates gave her a community order for those crimes in November 2018. But she made more needless calls in December.

In May 2019, York magistrates revoked the November order and made another community order covering all the 2018 hoax calls.

But she had continued to breach the CBO making more hoax calls to police in April and May while awaiting sentence for the December offences and when she appeared before York magistrates in August, they jailed her.