A Templeton pensioner, with a history of making nuisance phone calls to the emergency services whilst drunk, has appeared in court again this week.
Seventy-one-year-old Ann Gateley, of Chapel Hill Lane, Cold Blow, pleaded guilty to two charges 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.
The court heard that Mrs. Gateley was arrested after misusing the public electronic communications network, after making numerous and some times malicious calls to the 999 system.
The defendant has been handed several custodial sentences in the past, for committing similar offences.
Prosecutor Vaughan Pritchard-Jones told magistrates that during the first phone call to the 999 system on May 19, Mrs. Gateley could be heard crying down the phone to the operator, and appeared to be ‘heavily intoxicated’ and ‘slurring’ her words, and not making ‘any sense’.
Emergency services attended Mrs. Gateley’s home and police forced entry. She was left to be treated by a paramedic as she appeared to be intoxicated.
“She rang 999 again thirty minutes later, crying, and denied that she had phoned the police, even though she was speaking to them!” said Mr. Pritchard-Jones.
“A few hours later Mrs. Gateley rang again and claimed to the call taker - ‘You rang me, what do you want?’ - before putting the phone down and ringing again some 20 minutes later stating that she didn’t want the police to attend, as they’d put her in prison.
“Into the following day she rang again, and said that she’d had a fall, but didn’t want anyone to attend. The police arrested her but didn’t want to prosecute her on this occasion, instead referring Mrs. Gateley to visit the Pembrokeshire Women’s Pathway Group for support, but she didn’t attend appointments,” he continued.
The court heard how further offences were committed on June 8, where she again phoned the 999 system crying, but wouldn’t say who she was and became abusive down the line to the operator.
“She called again, and said that someone was trying to control her, and the operator said that all she could hear was a loud noise from the TV in the background, and Mrs. Gateley claimed that she had fallen out of bed,” said Mr. Pritchard-Jones.
“Police attended on this occasion and found her in the bedroom intoxicated, surrounded by empty alcohol bottles. Whilst they were there, Mrs. Gateley fell over due to her drunkenness and hit her head on the coffee table.
“She was taken to Withybush Hospital and returned home that afternoon, but soon after, phoned 999 again, and said that someone had been in her home and threatened her and hit her on the back of the head, so she clearly couldn’t remember the fall she’d had.
“She phoned again later that afternoon, stating that ‘these people had smashed her head in today’ and then she continued to be abusive to the operator.
“This is a sad situation here - she seems incapable of using the 999 system and abuses it when under the influence of alcohol,” added Mr. Pritchard-Jones.
Defence solicitor Stuart John told the court that it was almost impossible to mitigate these offences. He explained that Mrs. Gateley who previously ran a caravan park in the area, with her late husband, had never troubled the court up until 2012, but felt that her lack of work since retiring, had contributed to her alcohol abuse.
“The reality is that short spells in prison doesn’t serve her any purpose, it gives her body a break from alcohol, but when she’s released, she repeats the cycle again,” he said.
Probation officer Julie Norman told the court that Mrs. Gateley had been given eight custodial sentences since 2014.
“It’s a sad state of affairs, she is isolated where she lives and when she relapses into alcohol use, the pattern of offending where she rings 999 continuously occurs,” she said.
“When she’s sober she engages and is sociable, but when intoxicated, she becomes abusive. I don’t have any pleasure in sending a 71-year-old woman to prison, all custody does is give the emergency services a break and her body a break from alcohol.
“She has been in the DDAS-Dyfed Drug and Alcohol Service system since 2014. Mrs. Gateley can go days where she doesn’t drink, she had proved that, when she has somewhere to go and something to do. When she’s at home on her own - that’s when the problems start,” added Mrs. Norman.
Magistrates elected to hand Mrs. Gateley a 20 week suspended prison sentence, with a requirement to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work in the community.
“This is a real problem where you are persistently committing offences that cause hassle for the emergency services, taking them away from more important matters,” chief magistrate David Ellis told the defendant.
“Custody isn’t working, so this might put some sort of structure in your life to help you - but the desire has to come from within you, and you need to liaise with the probation service to help yourself,” he added.
Mrs. Gateley was also ordered to pay £85 of prosecution costs and a £115 victim surcharge.