AN 83-YEAR-OLD 999 time-waster who’s alleged to have cost health services at least £28,000 with hundreds of calls was back in jail on Monday night, after re-starting his offending.

Raymond Owen, of Caernarfon Road, Bangor, Gwynedd, a former railway electrician, admitted breaching a criminal behaviour order between January 15 and 17 when he phoned the ambulance service six times.

Prosecutor James Neary told a district judge at Llandudno court :”It appears his behaviour isn’t improving and he’s continuing to be a drain on the resources of the Welsh ambulance service.”

Mr Neary said police had previously visited Owen’s home and placed on his wall, in bold writing, the numbers he should call for help. Speed-dial numbers had been put in his phone.

In October the pensioner branded Wales’s worst 999 pest had been jailed for 146 days.

On Thursday a consultant at Gwynedd Hospital, Bangor, saw Owen in A and E and he complained about chronic back pain. But the prosecutor said there was no apparent discomfort when Owen walked with a frame to the toilet, and no medical emergency. Since October 2017 he’d visited the emergency unit 23 times and there had been no need to admit him for treatment.

Due to the amount of unnecessary calls, the ambulance service didn’t automatically send an ambulance to him. Owen would become verbally aggressive, Mr Neary added.

Between May and August the elderly pest had cost taxpayers £28,000.

Yesterday judge Gwyn Jones imposed a 20 weeks prison sentence. He said Owen had been given the chance to avoid trouble but, regrettably, continued to call the ambulance service. Judge Jones declared :”Only an immediate period of custody is justified.”

Defence solicitor Nia Dawson said Owen had no GP because the pensioner had been “struck off” by the doctor and his family had “blocked” his calls. He had Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and panicked when breathless.

Mrs Dawson said Owen knew it wasn’t an emergency “but he just had no-one else he could phone.” The period in custody had been a lesson to him after he fell out of bed and damaged his back even more. Owen didn’t want to be in jail for the rest of his life.

On a video link from custody, Owen said he adored his family. “Please let me go back to them,” he pleaded.