A NUISANCE caller who rang the ambulance service on 82 occasions – wasting more than eight hours of vital response time – has been jailed for two years.

Donald McKean persistently dialled 999 from Bradford city centre, which he was excluded from by a Criminal Behaviour Order.

McKean, 57, had a long history of wasting police time and making menacing and time-wasting phone calls, Bradford Crown Court heard.

In 2016, he was imprisoned for sexually assaulting a female paramedic in the back of an ambulance and making nuisance calls to the emergency services.

McKean, of no fixed address, was sentenced yesterday on a video link to Leeds Prison after admitting two breaches of the Criminal Behaviour Order (CRIMBO) and breach of the sex offender notification requirements.

Prosecutor Paul Nicholson said that McKean had 86 previous convictions for 140 offences and had received a string of prison sentences throughout the country for similar offences.

Between August 8 and 19 last year, he made 82 calls to the ambulance service, wasting 500 minutes of vital airtime for people in genuine need.

The court heard that McKean was barred from contacting the service by the CRIMBO and he made the calls from Bradford city centre, which the order excluded him from.

He had also flouted the order by going into the Royal Bank of Scotland on Bank Street in Bradford on September 6.

McKean breached the sexual offender notification rules by failing to tell the police he had moved out of The New Beehive Inn on Westgate, Bradford, in November, meaning they did not know where he was.

When questioned by the police, he denied making the 999 calls and said he was thrown out of his accommodation.

The court heard that McKean was jailed for 39 months in 2016 after he sexually assaulted a paramedic while he was being taken to Bradford Royal Infirmary.

He called the ambulance from Market Street and was found to be very drunk and doubly incontinent. On the way to the hospital, he grabbed the paramedic’s breast and touched her leg.

He was ordered to sign on the sexual offender register for ten years and given a seven-year CRIMBO.

He had persistently breached the order, the court heard.

McKean’s barrister, Robin Frieze, conceded that a prison sentence was inevitable.

His client went into the bank because he needed to open an account to get his benefits paid into.

“It’s difficult for him because he can’t access any services without being in breach of the requirements of the order,” Mr Frieze said.

McKean had suffered with epilepsy all his life and he had low cognitive skills and Tourette syndrome. He found prison life very difficult and had been bullied, the court was told.

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, warned McKean that if he continued to waste the ambulance service’s time he would be looking at four years behind bars next time.

McKean’s criminal record was spread so widely that he must have a better knowledge of the United Kingdom than most geography teachers, the judge said.

He had been dealt with by courts in Edinburgh, Sheffield, Leicester, Northampton, Maidstone and on the Fylde Coast.