A MAN who was banned by a criminal behaviour order from making unnecessary contact with the emergency services used the 999 number to call police and complain about his neighbours.

Blackburn magistrates heard Lance Cook, who had been drinking heavily, made three calls in the space of 20 minutes and the police eventually came to talk to him and not his noisy neighbours.

Cook, 57, of Springbank Terrace, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to breaching a criminal behaviour order. He was sentenced to six weeks in prison suspended for 12 months and ordered to pay £115 victim surcharge.

Alex Mann, prosecuting, under the conditions of the order Cook was banned from contacting Social Services or the emergency services or behaving in a threatening manner towards any members of those organisations.

She said the order had been made in 2016 because of a history of Cook complaining about the way he had been treated by social services in relation to a child who had been taken into care many years ago.

She said there had been numerous breaches including one in July 2017 which resulted in a suspended prison sentence and another in September which lead to a custodial sentence and the suspended sentence being implemented

Ben Leech, defending, said his client's grievance with social services went back many years and he hadn't dealt with it particularly well. He said his client started suffering from depression and that drew him into alcohol abuse.

"All his offending is fuelled by alcohol," said Mr Leech. "In fairness, his offending has slowed down dramatically and it is encouraging that he has been co-operating fully with the probation service since he was released on prison licence."