An attention-seeking mum who caused “enormous disruption” to the emergency services by making a series of bogus 999 calls has been jailed.

Charlotte Walkinshaw, of Ramsgate, made 31 calls pretending to be the victim of crime or in need of urgent medical intervention.

A judge at Canterbury Crown Court jailed the 44-year-old - who wasted dozens of hours of the emergency workers' time - for two years last Tuesday.

After the judge passed sentence, Walkinshaw said: “Sorry. I won’t be doing that again, I promise you that.”

The court heard Walkinshaw had previously been banned from dialling 999 unnecessarily in a court order handed down by magistrates.

But in February 2021, she called the ambulance service three times in an hour, saying she had trouble breathing.

“The ambulance service carried out an assessment over the phone and the result was that she was not having difficulty breathing,” prosecutor Michael Shilliday said.

Walkinshaw, of Lancaster Close, then claimed she was overdosing on 36 paracetamol and 26 anti-psychotic tablets.

But when an ambulance arrived, tests revealed her blood levels were normal and she wasn’t suffering from drowsiness.

In October the same year, she told another 999 call handler she was going to kill herself.

But after a psychological examination, medics concluded her behaviour was caused by excess alcohol, not a mental health episode.

"I dread to think how many tens of thousands of pounds you have cost the public..."

Following her arrest, Walkinshaw - who has 76 previous convictions - asked for a further 29 phone calls to be taken into consideration.

Judge Rupert Lowe told Walkinshaw, who appeared remotely from HMP Bronzefield: “You’d ring them up, tell them some nonsense and get them to spend time with you.

“You should know at your age the emergency services are hard pressed, and I dread to think how many tens of thousands of pounds you have cost the public and how many people have been genuinely ill needing the police or fire services having to wait, with potentially catastrophic results.”

Representing Walkinshaw, Kerry Waitt said she had suffered trauma at various points in her life and was being helped by care agencies.

He added she was remorseful over her actions.

The judge explained he felt “great sympathy” over Walkinshaw’s traumatic past, but added: “This needs to stop.”