A MOTORCYCLE paramedic has been convicted of making a malicious 999 call claiming a female colleague was drink driving.

Michael Waudby, who is also a magistrate, denied making the malicious call about ambulance worker Kerry Byrne, who was employed by Tees, East and North Yorkshire Ambulance Service.

District Judge Roy Anderson, sitting at Harrogate Magistrates' Court, heard that the call was made from a public phone on the route the 50-year-old would have used between York ambulance station and his home.

Andrew Wallington, prosecuting, said as Miss Byrne, a union representative, drove home to Thirsk on May 29 last year two police cars stopped her and she was accused of drink-driving.

A breath test was negative but the following day a note was pinned to the door of her locker which read: "Have fun with the pigs, ha, ha."

Miss Byrne told the court that her car tyres were let down on the day she found the note and a further three times in June.

And in September, a car was driven alongside her on the Easingwold bypass and she was threatened with a gun.

When police played her the tape of the drink-drive 999 call she recognised Waudby's voice.

Voice expert Dr John French said the voice and speech patterns of the caller were consistent with Waudby's.

Waudby, a paramedic for 25 years and a York JP for four years, denied responsibility and said that the first he had known of the allegation was when he returned to work on August 10 after a holiday and was suspended.

He also denied having anything to do with the other incidents and said he had no animosity against Miss Byrne, now living and working in Sussex.

Judge Anderson said there were a number of puzzling aspects to the case, not least who was responsible for the other harassment - but he was satisfied Waudby had made the phone call.

Fining Waudby, of Forest Grove, Stockton Lane, York, £500 with £400 costs, the judge said: ''It is a matter of regret that I have to deal with somebody who will lose both his job and his career as a magistrate.''