Supervision order for time-waster

A MAN who wasted the time of police officers and hospital staff by reporting fake incidents had a serious drink problem, a court has been told.

Police in Bathgate, West Lothian, launched an investigation in March after Allan White told them he’d been threatened with a knife.

Last September he pretended to accident and emergency staff at St John’s Hospital in Livingston, West Lothian, that he’d swallowed a bottle of paracetemol tablets. And in October last year he sparked a major panic by claiming people were trapped inside a burning house in Bathgate.

White, 22, who now stays in Leith, pleaded guilty to wasting police time and behaving in a threatening and abusive manner at earlier hearings. He also admitted failing to appear at court in March this year and was yesterday sentenced to 18 months’ supervision.