A woman who made more than 1,200 nuisance calls to the Met Police in attempts to get herself arrested has been jailed for ten weeks.
Jelena Bobrova, 54, has pestered police operators for the last three years in rambling 999 calls, clogging up the emergency line and costing the force more than £10,000.
Despite being handed a criminal behaviour order in November last year, Bobrova continued making the nuisance calls including 39 times in the space of just four hours on February 16.
Scotland Yard said Bobrova “appeared to be rambling and challenged police to arrest her” each time she rang 999, according to a global media report.
Bobrova initially denied making the calls, trying to blame them on a technical glitch, but has now been sentenced to ten weeks in prison by Croydon magistrates.
Sergeant Terry Collman said Bobrova’s jail term should “send a message to anyone who thinks this immature behaviour is a form of entertainment.”
“In 2019, there were 175,000 calls recorded as misuse calls. This amounted to a yearly cost to the Met of more than £1.3 million”, he said.
“Nuisance calls to police are absolutely not acceptable, they are certainly not funny and are a huge waste of time and money.
“These calls prevent people who are in a genuine emergency from speaking to police and receiving help when they most need it.”
Bobrova, who lives in Clapham, admitted breaching a criminal behaviour order.
She made a total of 1,278 calls to police over three years.
