A woman who rang 999 hundreds a total of 873 times call takers has been sentenced to three months in prison.

Tracey Ford rang the ambulance service 391 times between June 9, 2017 and June 9, 2018 and 75 times between November 20, 2018 and January 17, 2019.

She called Essex Police more than 261 times between August 1, 2018 and January 17, 2019, and more than 146 times between February 8, 2018 and August 7, 2018.

This does not include calls she also made to the non-emergency number 101.

She reported offences to officers on just three occasions and an ambulance went to her home twice but she did not need hospital treatment.

The rest of her calls were non-emergency and her continuous contacting to the ambulance service alone cost in the region of £22,000.

A recording of one of the phone calls has been transcribed by Essex Police can be read below:

Ford: And I’ve had eight of your people on 101 or, whatever, 999, do eight statements and I took it to court and I won it.

Operator: Right.

Ford: So go down that road again, let’s go down that road again.

Operator: If you call on 101, and you don’t shout at the call taker and you aren’t abusive-

Ford: Well even if I don’t shout at the call takers, you don’t listen. You keep treating everyone the same!

Operator: Right, so-

Ford: If you want to do a job, do it or go away! Yeah, do another job, because you’re not very good at it!

Ford, of High Barrets, Pitsea, was charged with two counts of persistently using the public communication network to cause annoyance, inconvenience or anxiety.

The 48-year-old denied the offences but was convicted following a trial at Basildon Magistrates’ Court on Friday 8 March.

She was sentenced today, Thursday, April 25, to 12 weeks imprisonment for both counts, with one to run concurrent.

A statement released by Essex Police said: “She (Ford) has also received a Community Behavioural Order (CBO) which will last for five years and has two conditions which, if broken, is a criminal offence and could lead to a custodial sentence.

“The first condition is that Ford must not call the 999 emergency service number unless there is a genuine emergency that would require immediate attendance from the emergency service receiving the call.

“The second condition states that Ford must report a minor crime, incident, illness or injury herself, but must use a third party to make contact on her behalf if there is a genuine reason for the call.

“In addition, if any contact is being made with an emergency service, Ford must not use foul, offensive, abusive or threatening language or make false claims.”