LINDA LUSARDI - PANTO STAR'S 'FRIVOLOUS' 999 CALL

PANTO STAR'S 'FRIVOLOUS' 999 CALL

Former Page 3 model Linda Lusardi dialled 999 at the weekend because she was late for her pantomime, it has been revealed.

The 50-year-old called emergency services after getting stuck in traffic on the M25 in Hertfordshire.

But Lusardi, who is playing the Wicked Queen in Snow White, was knocked back in her request to use the hard shoulder so she would not be late.

"We received a phone call from Linda Lusardi asking if she could have emergency permission to use the hard shoulder," a spokesperson for Hertfordshire police said.

"The request was denied. Being late for work is not a reason to call 999 or use emergency measures."

A spokesman for Lusardi's pantomime production, on at the Swan Theatre in High Wycombe, confirmed that the former soap actress, her husband and daughter – both of whom are also in the panto – were 35 minutes late for the matinee performance on Saturday.

Although Lusardi had no comment to make the spokesman added: "I can say everybody's human and we don't all run like robots."

This weekend police warned against people abusing the 999 number, releasing some of the worst cases of callers calling the emergency services with no good reason.

Among calls cited by police included a woman concerned about the state of her rabbit's ears, a man with too many mushrooms on his pizza and a priest stuck in an airport toilet.