A south Essex woman has received a conditional caution following her arrest after repeatedly calling 999.

The 51-year-old woman from Tilbury called 999 a total of 165 times within a 3-month period, with none of these calls requiring a response from police.

During these calls, police say handlers were also subjected to verbal abuse.

She was arrested yesterday on suspicion of sending a false message by public electronic network to cause annoyance and sending communications of an offensive nature.

Following interview, she was issued with a conditional caution.

Superintendent Jamie Gingell said: “Our Force Control Room and Resolution Centre deal with thousands of calls every week and work efficiently to get support to those who need it.

“I hope this arrest proves that we will not tolerate any abuse to our officers and staff and we do not condone anyone who intentionally wastes police time.

“Unfortunately, a lot of the calls we get to 999 do not require an emergency response.

“On top of this, we also deal with an extremely high number of 101 calls, which often means there is a wait time for those trying to get through to us. I’d encourage the public to report incidents online to us which is straight forward and can be done right away.”

Get more stories like this delivered to your inbox every day by signing up to our morning newsletter - don't miss out.

If it is not an emergency and the crime an individual wishes to speak to police about is not happening right now, they are asked not to call 999.

Instead, this should be reported online using the force's online Live Chat service, or call police on 101.

On average around 80 per cent of the 999 calls Essex Police receive could have been dealt with better using one of these methods, leaving emergency call takers free to help those who urgently need it.