A Templeton pensioner, with a history of making nuisance phone calls to the emergency services whilst drunk, has been given another term of imprisonment, after admitting her latest charge in court.

Seventy-two-year-old Ann Gateley, of Chapel Hill Lane, Cold Blow, pleaded guilty to a charge of persistently making use of a public electronic communications network for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to another, when she appeared at Haverfordwest Magistrates Court on Tuesday; and admitted a further charge of being in charge of a dog that was dangerously out of control, that injured a police officer in the execution of their duty.

Prosecutor Sian Vaughan told the court that between December 1 and 16, Mrs. Gateley had made eight ‘nuisance’ calls to the 999 service and on December 16, when police officers arrested her at her home, one of her dogs bit an officer on the calf inside the property.

“As police officers had to pick Mrs. Gateley off the floor during the arrest, her behaviour caused one of her dogs to become agitated and it bit one of the officers on two occasions, causing puncture wounds to his calf, in an apparent attempt to protect its owner.

“Mrs. Gateley has previous convictions for similar offences of making nuisance calls to the 999 service, and most recently was handed a 20-week suspended prison sentence in June,” she continued.

Defence solicitor Mike Kelleher told the court that not all the phone calls made to the emergency services were of a nuisance nature, some were genuine, as Mrs. Gateley had fallen to the floor with osteoarthritis to the knee, and was struggling to get up.

“One of her legs is prone to give way and she had fallen to the floor. She lives in an isolated cottage and was unable to get up off the floor. She rung for an ambulance several times, but her view was that it was too far for the ambulance to come to attend to her, so knowing that the police were located closer in Narberth, she phoned for them to come, stating that she had been on a cold floor waiting for four hours!

“Some phone calls had a genuine reason, but it seems that other calls were made, not necessarily in connection to this matter.

“When police arrived, you can only imagine the situation when she was being lifted from her own bedroom to go out to the police vehicle, and for the dogs to see their owner in distress.

“There were so many officers in attendance that doors were left open and the dogs, including her Labrador, got out. It’s difficult to blame the dogs, and Mrs. Gateley has apologised since to the officer that was bitten, who has been to her property on many occasions,” continued Mr. Kelleher.

Probation officer Julie Norman told magistrates that Mrs. Gateley had been on post sentence supervision since her last term of imprisonment in January, and fully complying to the conditions of the suspended sentence she received in June, which carried a requirement to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work in the community.

“Mrs. Gateley has been fully complying with the order, and attending the Paul Sartori store in Narberth several times a week to volunteer. She has also been seeing DDAS, the Dyfed Drug and Alcohol Service, four times a week for support.

“She has had alcohol issues for many, many years which she has attempted to deal with, and is on a long journey. Over the last three years she has served eight custodial sentences for making similar nuisance phone calls.

“We are aware that there have been police call-outs to her property during her suspended sentence, and the local police have been quite tolerant to the situation,” she added.

Magistrates elected to activate the suspended sentence, but reduced the term to 10 weeks. Mrs. Gateley was also given a further 15 weeks sentence for the malicious calls made this month, to run consecutively, meaning she would serve a period of 25 weeks in prison.

A contingency destruction order was also made for the dog, to ensure that it was kept under control at all times.

Mrs. Gateley was fined £440 for the offence and ordered to pay compensation of £200 to the police officer bitten by her dog.

She was also ordered to pay prosecution costs of £85 and a victim surcharge of £115.