Woman jailed for hundreds of 'vile' 999 nuisance calls

A woman who made hundreds of foul-mouthed 999 calls abusing operators' race and gender has been jailed.

Monika Osinska, 34, from Salford, made 339 malicious 999 calls between September and November, including 23 calls in just one day on 1 November.

Her "deplorable behaviour" cost the Operational Communications Branch over £1,400 due to lost time and wages.

She was jailed for 12 weeks at Manchester & Salford Magistrates' Court on Tuesday.

Osinska, of Liverpool Road, Peel Green, had previously admitted persistently making use of a public communication network to cause annoyance.

Police said she had a long history of making malicious phone calls to 999 from her mobile phone.

In January she received a caution for making more than 150 malicious 999 calls in less than a month.

But she continued making abusive calls to call handlers in which she often made derogatory remarks about the call handler's gender, race and nationality, Greater Manchester Police said.

In May, Osinska appeared in court and had an existing 12-week suspended sentence for malicious communications extended to 15 months, but continued to make malicious calls.

Supt Mark Kenny said: "Anyone who ties up a 999 line with inappropriate calls prevents genuine emergencies being dealt with, and potentially puts lives in danger.

"Osinska's deplorable behaviour has run this risk hundreds of times.

"The nature of Osinska's calls was frequently vile - and never once referred to a valid emergency situation."