A 54-year-old woman who dialled 999 almost 40 times in four hours and challenged police to arrest her has been jailed.

The calls made by Jelena Bobrova, of the Oaklands Estate in Clapham, cost the Met more than £10,000.

She was sentenced to 10 weeks in prison after ringing them 1,278 times over three years – and for breaching the Criminal Behaviour Order she received in November 2019 for her nuisance and persistent calling.

A total of 39 calls were made to police by Bobrova within a four-hour period on Sunday, February 16. In every call, she appeared to be rambling and challenged police to arrest her.

She was arrested on February 23 for breaching her CBO, which prohibited her from making false calls.

Bobrova denied placing the calls and said there was a technical glitch. She was sentenced the following day at Croydon Magistrates’ Court.

Police Sergeant Terry Collman said:

“The Metropolitan Police answers more than 4.5 million calls per year. In 2019, there were 175,000 calls recorded as misuse calls. This amounted to a yearly cost to the Met of more than £1.3m.

“Nuisance calls to police are absolutely not acceptable, they are certainly not funny and are a huge waste of time and money.

“These calls prevent people who are in a genuine emergency from speaking to police and receiving help when they most need it.

“I hope the sentence given to Bobrova will send a message to anyone who thinks this immature behaviour is a form of entertainment.”