Serial 101 pest from Portsmouth jailed for making 170 calls

A WOMAN has been jailed for calling police 170 times after she was released from prison for doing exactly that.
Suzannah Grevett has been jailed for dialling 101 170 timesSuzannah Grevett has been jailed for dialling 101 170 times
Suzannah Grevett has been jailed for dialling 101 170 times

Suzannah Grevett is starting a yearlong sentence for calling the police number 101.

The 45-year-old had breached for a second time a restraining order banning her from calling the number.

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Grevett, of Clarence Parade, Southsea, has 24 previous convictions – almost all of which are for the same crime.

The court heard she previously wasted 24 hours of time by making the 101 calls.

Sentencing, judge Claudia Ackner said: ‘Using 101 in the way you that you have tied up the call handlers from attending urgent calls in a way that is totally unacceptable.’

The judge added: ‘It can’t be for you to decide if those calls can or can’t be answered.’

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Grevett was given a five-year restraining order in 2014 when she was jailed for three months for calling 101. And she was jailed for a year for breaching the order in 2015.

Simon Foster, prosecuting, said Grevett made the calls between August 2 and 12 last year on a mobile phone.

‘I can’t find calls between the hours of 2am and 5am but otherwise they seem to be indiscriminate,’ he said.

‘They could last in time up to 10 minutes and all tended to be very aggressive and abusive.

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‘Often the staff began to recognise her voice and were aware of what was coming.’

He added: ‘The pressure on the system, especially in days of cutbacks, is intolerable.’

The court heard Grevett has no mental illness that needs detention in hospital.

She pleaded guilty to breaching the restraining order at an earlier hearing at Portsmouth Crown Court.

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Representing herself, she said she had a grievance dating back to 2011 when she was convicted of battery.

But the judge said: ‘Phoning 101 persistently is not the way to deal with it and the courts won’t allow it.’

Grevett said: ‘I have told the truth since the first moment I picked up the phone to the police.’

She added: ‘My 101 calls are recorded – this has now taken years and year to come out – they’re there forever.’

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Grevett said she would not call 101 again as a psychologist was helping her with coping strategies.

She added: ‘Sometimes you have to stand up and be counted.’

When arrested she initially refused to speak to police.

Grevett moved to Portsmouth after her release from prison, having previously lived in Southampton.

Investigating officer, PC Jacquie Johnson said: ‘This type of behaviour placed a huge strain on our resources, not only in taking the calls themselves, but then dealing with the breaches of the restraining order.

‘This time could have been much better spent dealing with genuine emergency situations.

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‘We are here to help and protect the public, and should be able to do so without our time being wasted by people acting in the way that Grevett did.’

She said there were 170 calls between August 2 and September 13.