A PHONE pest bombarded police with more than 1,000 needless calls, a court heard.

Margaret Dixon, 41, made the mainly silent calls almost every day for three months before Cleveland Police were forced to take action.

Yesterday, she admitted a breach of bail by making even more nuisance calls and was locked up.

Dixon rang the station on a mobile phone, from call boxes and from the phone in her lodging house room.

A police spokesman said; "She would keep one line clogged up constantly and must have prevented other people getting through."

On Monday, Dixon admitted persistently making use of a public telephone system to cause annoyance and inconvenience.

She also admitted a charge of harassing staff at Middlesbrough police station with more than 1,000 unnecessary calls from March 4 to July 14 and was given bail on condition that she made no further contact with the police except in an emergency.

She was arrested again late on Wednesday night after making five more silent calls traced to her flat in Bransdale Road, Middlesbrough.

Her solicitor, John Nixon, questioned whether all the silent calls could be put down to her.

Magistrates in Middlesbrough remanded her in custody for two weeks for pre-sentence reports.