A BALLOCH teenager made repeated 999 calls asking for police help when there was no emergency, spat on police, and brandished a carving knife at her family in the kitchen of their home this summer.

The 17-year-old girl committed a series of offences in June and July of this year, and went on to breach a curfew in September.

The teenager, who can’t be named because of her age, appeared at Dumbarton Sheriff Court on Friday, October 4, for sentencing after admitting charges of assault, police assault, threatening or abusive behaviour, and offences under the Communications Act.

The court heard that the girl first came to the attention of police when a householder living near Dumbarton’s police station saw her appearing to act suspiciously close to the building on June 3.

On that occasion she was found in possession of a butter knife.

Fiscal depute Emma Thomson told the court that on the evening of the following day, the teenager was seen “lingering” around the car park near the police station in Alexandria.

“Over the course of that evening,” Ms Thomson said, “she made numerous 999 calls to Police Scotland.

“Officers returned her to her home address, but while at the property and being appraised of the accused’s background, she made a run for the rear kitchen door to escape.”

Police made off in pursuit and caught up with the girl near Alexandria’s police station, before again taking her home.

But as the officers left they became aware of a disturbance inside the property - and when they looked through the kitchen window at the rear of the house they could see the girl standing in the kitchen, holding a carving knife with a seven-and-a-half inch blade.

The police approached the house, opened the kitchen door and managed to distract the girl for long enough to allow officers to charge her and disarm her, before taking her to Clydebank’s police station to be interviewed.

Ms Thomson then described a series of 999 calls made by the girl to police between 1.49pm and 7.16pm on Thursday, July 18, in which she claimed to be lost or to have fallen in a ditch.

Police eventually traced the teenager at around 7.30pm and again took her home to her parents.

But at around 5pm the next day she made another 999 call, claiming to be in possession of a knife.

The girl was eventually traced in Round Riding Road in Dumbarton, where she again told police she had a knife – but when she was taken to the town’s police station and searched, no bladed items were found.

Ms Thomson said: “At the police station she was laughing and stating she was going to continue to phone police throughout the night because she enjoyed being chased.”

She was taken back to her parents in a police van, but as she was being put into the vehicle, she spat at two police officers, striking one of them in the face, and then, during the journey, tried to remove her shoe laces to tie them round her neck.

After arriving home, the court heard, the girl took hold of a wooden-framed mirror, held it above her head and “motioned several times as if to throw it”.

Ms Thomson said that as the girl’s aggressive behaviour escalated, she punched her father several times and spat on him.

This time the girl was held in police custody overnight and appeared at Dumbarton Sheriff Court the following day, where she was released on bail.

Finally, on the evening of September 7, police on patrol in Lomond Road in Balloch spotted the girl sitting on a grass verge at the side of the road.

They realised that she was breaching a curfew imposed as a bail condition at that July court hearing.

Once more, she was arrested and held in custody, from where she appeared in court again two days later.

Placing the teen under social work supervision for two years, Sheriff John Hamilton told her: “You will have to be of good behaviour.

“This conduct with the police has to stop - for your benefit and everybody else’s.

“I’m trying to avoid a formal process, but it may be that in the future the court has to impose some sort of formal order.”