Derry woman dialled 999 and asked for lift home after 'mad auld binge'

When police arrived at the house they found the woman sat at the kitchen table drinking from a can of beer

The police said they were not a cab service

A Derry woman who called police asking for a lift to her mother's house had been on "a mad auld binge", a court was told.

Denise Hynds, 44, said "please help me" to the operator and after further calls was tracked down to a house in the town of Limavady.

When police arrived at the house they found Hynds sat at the kitchen table drinking from a can of beer, the Derry Journal reports. She did not appear to be in any danger.

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

Hynds told police she had been on a "mad auld binge" and had also taken a lot of medication.

She has been charged with wasting police time.

Her defence solicitor, Paddy McGurk, said she was aware of the seriousness of her crime.

She was a "model prisoner", he added, who was doing "everything she could to get away from a spiral of drink and drugs".

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

"You're building yourself up a bit of a record," the judge said while sentencing her.