Police warn Heather McCartney over emergency calls

LONDON (Reuters) - British police have warned Heather Mills McCartney, the estranged wife of former Beatle Paul, about using the emergency phone number 999 too often.

The 39-year-old, in the middle of a bitter divorce battle with Paul McCartney that has thrust her into the media spotlight, has complained of harassment by paparazzi since the split was announced 10 months ago.

Chief Superintendent Kevin Moore, of Brighton and Hove Police on the southern English coast where Mills spends much of her time, said there was a risk that officers may take her calls less seriously if she contacted them too often.

"We are having to spend a disproportionate amount of time on one particular person," he said in reported remarks that were confirmed by a spokeswoman for the force.

"We are duty-bound to respond, but clearly people who make lots of calls to the police run the risk of being treated as the little boy who cried wolf," he added.

"Officers who have attended previously to find there have been no grounds might not take any claims seriously, and that's the danger we face."

The spokeswoman did not say how many emergency calls Mills made to police, but said some had not warranted any action. She added that police advised Mills over dialing the '999' number and suggested that she kept a log of press harassments.

Mills' spokesman Phil Hall said she had called police on several occasions about paparazzi photographers who followed her along the street "often on motorbikes and in a very dangerous fashion."

He also said Mills' representatives had spoken to Moore on Thursday.