A WOMAN made repeated 999 calls about her neighbour’s cat who had a broken leg.
Tracey Deakin, of Bell Court, Wrexham, was charged with making persistent use of a public telecommunications network after she called 999 five times in two hours about the cat.
Deakin, 48, pleaded guilty to making the calls on October 3 at Wrexham Magistrates’ Court yesterday.
Justin Espie, prosecuting, said: “She called expressing concern for a pet in her neighbour’s house which she thought had a broken leg.
“The explanation that she gave was that she didn’t have enough credit on her phone, and 999 is a free number.”
She was told by police not to use 999 for such matters after the first call, he said, and when officers visited again they noticed she was drunk.
Emma Simose, defending, said Deakin, who was trying to wean herself off medication for agoraphobia, had been worried the cat wasn’t getting fed and looked poorly for some time.
When she noticed it was limping and in pain she suspected it was being mistreated. The cat then appeared with two sticks and a bandage on it’s leg, and she decided she must take action.
“On the day she had drunk alcohol, and perhaps that heightened her emotions, but she felt it needed urgent attention and didn’t know what to do,” Ms Simose said.
She said it was only on Deakin’s final call that she was given an emergency number for the RSPCA, which she then called.
“The cat’s leg had to be amputated and the RSPCA said that because of her intervening the cat managed to stay alive,” said Ms Simose.
Deakin pleaded guilty, she said, because she accepted she had gone about it in the wrong way.
District Judge Andrew Shaw said: “The thing that mitigates this is that when you made the calls, albeit to the wrong people, you did have a legitimate cause.”
He told Deakin to pay £85 costs and made an order not to call emergency services for 12 months, except of course in a genuine emergency.
- SPEAKING afterwards Tracey Deakin said she was glad it was all over: “I knew his leg was broken. At the time I just thought I was saving a cat.”
She said another neighbour had been taking Cosmic the cat in, and had noticed the broken leg.
They had intended to take Cosmic to the vet but then the cat went back to its owners.
“I started to panic,” she said, “so I phoned up 999 and said I’ve got no credit but there’s a cat in need.”
The RSPCA took a statement from her and told her the leg was infected and her action probably saved the cat’s life.
“I’m very pleased with with the outcome, but I can’t bring Cosmic’s leg back,” she added, “Six days that cat suffered. A cat can’t talk, or a dog. All they want is food and a bit of love.”