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Six years ago, Julie Manning had a high-profile job at
Medway Hospital's Oliver Fisher Special Care Baby
Unit.

She worked with consultants and organised the unit's
21st birthday celebration.

Today, her life is in tatters. She became an alcoholic,
got a criminal record, and spent two weeks in prison. Read her
interview with reporter Lynn Cox.

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The police know Julie Manning well. They should do -
she dialled 999 every day for months.

She was charged with wasting about 18 hours of police time and
found herself in the dock at Medway Magistrates' Court.

Julie, 47, of Vicarage Road, Strood, began drinking when she became
depressed.

Then her life spiralled out of control when she lost her job as
press officer at the Oliver Fisher Special Care Baby Unit, which
was for many years one of Medway's best-supported charities, with
hundreds of events being organised to raise cash.

Her marriage broke down and her children had to live with their
dad because of her binge-drinking.

Julie found a new partner but he died and her depression became
worse.

She began making the 999 calls in March this year and made them
on an almost daily basis for six months.

Some calls lasted more than 30 minutes when she would plead with
call centre staff to send someone out as she was frightened what
she might do to herself.

She said: "I lost everything and became more depressed and drank
more and more. I was on a spiral and couldn't get off it.

"I'm very, very sorry for making the calls. My behaviour has
been disgraceful. I have been a bl***ing idiot.

"I know it is wrong when I'm sober. I just couldn't help myself
when I was drunk. I needed help and I don't know how I'm going to
live with the guilt.

"In my mind I was dialling 999 because I needed help and to me,
at the time, it was an emergency.

Before being sentenced at Medway Magistrates' Court, she
spent two weeks on remand at a prison in Middlesex.

She thinks the magistrates remanded her to show her how
seriously they were treating the case.

"It was a short, sharp, shock and was very frightening. It's not
like Prisoner Cell Block H, but it's not Butlins either, I didn't
like being locked up and it made me see what I was doing."

The court sentenced her to community service when she was let
out of prison but she decided she needed a drink.

She said: "I'm an alcoholic and I'd not had a drink for ages so
went to get one and relapsed big time. I stupidly started making
the 999 calls again at the weekend.

"I don't know why I did it.

"When I'm in the depths of despair I need help. The police
arrested me and I've spent another 48 hours in the police
cells.

"I was up again before the courts on Tuesday and they've given
me more unpaid work.

"I must now carry out 200 hours of unpaid work, but I'm happy to
do this as in some way it may pay back what I've done."

Magistrates ordered her to attend counselling sessions and to
pay court costs.

Julie said: "I want to move on and I will. I've given my phone
to a friend so I can't make any more 999 calls and I'm going to
complete the counselling.

"People who have addictions like mine should get help as soon as
they realise they've got a problem."

Insp Chris Norfolk from the force's control centre, said:
"Yvonne (Julie) Manning has been ordered to put something back into
the community.

"That is only right considering that her offences could have
endangered the public as she took up valuable operator time with
calls that were not emergencies.

"We receive between 600 and 1,000 calls each day so we can't
afford to have our time taken up with people who are abusing the
system.

"I'm pleased to see this go before the courts."

Police ask people only to call 999 when a crime is in progress
or a life is at risk. On other occasions the public is advised to
use the non-emergency number of 01622 690690.

The force also gets around 2,500 non-emergency calls each
day.