A 26-year woman who left a foul-mouthed note on an ambulance parked outside her house in Staffordshire as paramedics dealt with an emergency has been fined by a court.
Staff from West Midlands Ambulance Service revealed on Twitter they had found the note and they had also been subjected to verbal abuse from Kirsty Sharman while they attended a neighbour’s medical emergency at around noon on Sunday, February 18.
The neighbour’s wife was experiencing breathing difficulties in her Tunstall home in Stoke-on-Trent, a court heard.
The Twitter post showing the note has since gone viral and Staffordshire Police decided to take action.
The note reads: "If this van is for anyone but Number 14 then you have no right to be parked here.
"I couldn't give a s*** if the whole street collapsed. Now move your van from outside my house.”
Kirsty Sharman appeared at North Staffordshire Justice Centre in Newcastle-under-Lyme on Tuesday, February 20, and was fined £120 after pleading guilty to using threatening/abusive words to cause harassment, alarm or distress.
In addition, Sharman must also pay £135 costs and a £30 victim surcharge.
Now the husband of the woman who was being treated by the paramedics says the court should have come down harder. Brian Heath, of Tunstall, feels Sharman got off lightly, report our colleagues at The Sentinel.
Mr Heath had called 999 because his wife, Christine, who has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, began to suffer from breathing difficulties. Mrs Heath is still in hospital following the incident at the weekend.
Mr Heath said: "I am pleased with what the police did but feel the court has let us down. My wife is at a low ebb after all this."
As well as leaving the note, Sharman also went into the street and abused a male paramedic.
In court, she later offered her apologies to the ambulance staff.
Chief Inspector John Owen, commander for Stoke North local policing team, said: “It is really important that public servants who are there to serve and help the community feel safe in their day to day duties. This type of behaviour cannot be tolerated, and I know my view is supported by 99 per cent of our community.
“Paramedics are there to help those in absolute need, and for them to feel threatened or intimidated while potentially saving a life is just not acceptable.”
After the note was found over the weekend, Katie Tudor, a paramedic mentor for West Midlands Ambulance Service, posted a picture of it and wrote on Twitter: "So upset to be sent this by one of our crews this morning!"
She later said the ambulance was not blocking the road and was in a parking space.
She tweeted to several police Twitter accounts: "Is there anything that can be done about this? It's becoming a regular occurrence.”
In a separate case this week a paramedic was bitten as he tried to help a patient at a Staffordshire hospital. This incident was also Tweeted about from Burton. The paramedic had the skin on his arm broken and there was bruising after the attack, which has been condemned by ambulance service bosses.
