A BINGE-drinking woman who made nuisance calls to emergency services while intoxicated has avoided jail.

Katie Elizabeth Gardner, 21, of Monkswell, Kirkbarrow, Kendal, also escaped an ASBO sought by police to curb her violent behaviour.

Gardner pleaded guilty to four separate charges of making nuisance 999 calls when she appeared at South Lakeland Magistrates’ Court.

She also pleaded guilty to two separate public disorder offences – one involving a fight in Kendal town centre.

The offences were committed while Gardner was subject to a community order.

Gardner firstly called for an ambulance from her home address – the sheltered adult accommodation at Monkswell.

Vicky Weeks, prosecuting, said when paramedics arrived Gardner was ‘drunk and belligerent’.

She refused to be examined and said she had been trying to call her mother. She was cautioned.

On September 14, Gardner made five 999 calls in just over an hour. Police attended and found Gardner drunk.

On October 1 she made two nuisance calls around 1.31am. Police responded and found Gardner ‘extremely abusive and intoxicated’.

Gardner was arrested and admitted consuming a large quantity of the 12 bottles of cider she had bought earlier. She said she had called 999 after losing her keys.

At 6.30pm on October 20, while Gardner was on bail, she was involved in a fight with a girl lasting around 10 minutes outside the Globe Inn, Kendal, after drinking.

On November 8, Gardner called police from a phone box at 3.08am. When they arrived she kicked two shop windows and a car.

In mitigation, Nicola Stanwix said Gardner was a vulnerable adult who had struggled with alcohol misuse for some time and had even attempted suicide.

She said: “A breach of the ASBO is almost guaranteed, and would place a very vulnerable adult into a custody setting.”

Magistrates gave Gardner a 24-month community order on the grounds she attend a rehabilitation programme.

She was given 90 hours' unpaid work and ordered to pay £85 costs,