Shocks fail to stop hoax 999 addict

Feb 29 2008 by Our Correspondent, Western Mail

A HOUSEWIFE given electric shocks to break her addiction to dialling 999 yesterday escaped being jailed, after her therapy failed.

Thelma Dennis, 50, had shock treatment where electrodes were put on her fingers to send a jolt into her hand when she tapped out 999.

She had the electric therapy after being prosecuted 60 times for making hoax phone calls to the emergency services.

But Dennis appeared in court yesterday for ringing police to say a bomb had been planted in her local supermarket in the South Wales Valleys.

Police traced the hoax call to Dennis, who has been the scourge of emergency services for more than two decades.

Prosecutor Richard Ace said she called the police control room alleging there was a bomb at the Iceland store in Mountain Ash, near Aberdare.

He said, “PC Robert Pike went to her address an hour after the call. She has got a long history of similar incidents and has been prosecuted 60 times for these type of offences of making hoax bomb calls and threats to kill.”

Cardiff Crown Court heard she had been jailed twice for making the false calls.

Defence lawyer Jane Rowley said, “She has been making these calls for 24 years.

“She’s sorry and has genuine remorse.”

An earlier hearing was told Dennis had agreed to be wired to the machine in a bid to control her obsession.

She had electrodes taped to her fingers while doctors told her to dial 999 on a specially rigged-up phone.

Dennis was left screaming in pain as an electric current shot through her body every time she dialled the last “nine” digit.

But the shock treatment failed to cure her urges, and she landed back in court after another hoax call to the emergency services.

Dennis, of Commercial Road, Mountain Ash, was given a 12-month supervision order after admitting communicating false information about a bomb threat

The judge, Recorder Ian Murphy, said, “Clearly this is a person who has an urge to make these hoax calls, particularly when she drinks.”

The judge told her that he was not sending her to prison again because she had gone four years without committing an offence.

But he warned her that if she came back to court there would be no choice but to send her to prison again.

He said, “She alleged there was a bomb at the store which wasted valuable resources, which was alarming for the store, its staff and its customers.”