And finally… we’re cops not cabbies

Denise Hynds told police she had been on a drinking spree after she made the call on June 29 last year.

The 44-year-old pleaded to the operator “please help me” and after further calls was tracked down to a house in the town of in Limavady, the Derry Journalreports.

Responding officers found her drinking a can of beer but said she did not appear in any danger.

She admitted she just wanted a lift to her mother’s house but was told by police they were not a cab service, a court heard.

Hynds told them she had been on a drinking session and had also taken a lot of medication.

Police checked the calls had been made from her mobile phone and charged her with wasting police time.

Her defence solicitor Paddy McGurk said she was aware of the seriousness of the offence.

He added she was a “model prisoner” who was doing “everything she could to get away from a spiral of drink and drugs”.

She was handed a four-month sentence, running concurrent to the sentence she is already serving, for wasting police time by making a false report.

On sentencing, the judge said: “You’re building yourself up a bit of record.”