2:20pm Friday 3rd September 2010
A PERSISTENT nuisance has been jailed for threatening police officers and assaulting his mother.
The 22-year-old dialled 999 five times without reason, swore at officers and told them he wanted to “smash them”, a court heard.
Lisa O’Loughlin, prosecuting, said Scott Graham, of Hayclose Crescent, Kendal, also pushed his mother by the neck after she refused to buy him a drink.
Kendal magistrates sentenced Graham to 18 weeks in prison after he admitted repeated phone calls, causing annoyance, inconvenience and anxiety, two offences of drunk and disorderly behaviour, and assault.
These included an incident on June 22 this year, where he dialled 999 and shouted racist comments to the police.
On another occasion, at 1am on July 10, he dialled the emergency police number repeatedly from a mobile phone and verbally abused a female police officer.
The court heard how he demanded that they attend his address, and said: “I want the police here because I want to smash the police who think they are hard.”
On July 23, while on police bail, he was charged with being drunk and disorderly outside his home.
In the incident, he swore at police, calling them “scumbags”, and used language so obscene the prosecution refused to repeat it.
On July 30 he assaulted his mother, Catherine Graham, outside The Duke of Cumberland pub, in Kendal, where she was having drinks with her partner.
He arrived at 11pm, drunk, and said he had had a bottle of wine at home.
Mrs Graham was pushed by her neck while she tried to re-enter the pub, leaving her scared for her own safety.
He let go, but shouted foul language at police officers who tried to arrest him.
In the latest incident, at 6.30pm on August 16, Graham called police, threatening to slash his wrists, the court was told.
When police and emergency crews arrived at his address, they found him lying on the ground in front of his house, uninjured and clearly drunk.
Jackie Partington, in mitigation, said that, on the whole, he did not remember most of the behaviour, and his mother only helped convict him because she wanted help to support him.
Kendal magistrate Ms Hawson said Graham’s crimes were serious and his phone calls to police could have prevented the emergency services attending a genuine incident.
She added: “You are going to prison because your offences and misuse of the 999 system are serious. You’ve failed to take advice from those who have tried to help you.”
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