YORK magistrates have ordered a notorious street drinker to have six months of treatment to tackle her alcoholism.

They were sentencing Karen Anne Bulmer, 55, for assaults on staff in a restaurant and a convenience store in the city.

They heard that she has a chronic drink problem that has led to her  committing more than 600 offences since she was 28 years old.

Their order is the latest in a series of attempts by the courts and police to end 27 years of her being offensive, aggressive and abusive towards staff and the public when under the influence of alcohol in public.

In the past she has been subject to an anti-social behaviour order (ASBO) banning her from having alcohol in open containers in the street and the police have tried, unsuccessfully, to ban her from York entirely. She was also made subject to a criminal anti-social behaviour order (CRASBO) and served many prison sentences.

READ MORE: Why the ASBO failed to stop Bulmer breaking the law.

READ MORE: Why a York district judge rejected the police ban application.

Bulmer, of Wains Road, Dringhouses, denied two charges of assault but was convicted in her absence at two trials after she failed to attend court. She pleaded guilty to a third assault and three charges of failure to attend court, one of which was on the day she was originally due to be sentenced.

She appeared in court after she was arrested on a warrant for the third time in recent months.

Magistrates ordered her to undergo six months of alcohol treatment and 20 days’ rehabilitative activities as part of a 12-month community order supervised by the probation service. She must also pay £85 prosecution costs and a £114 statutory surcharge.

Her solicitor Craig Robertson said: “She doesn’t deliberately not go to court. She is a chronic alcoholic with significant issues.”

She had not had any help from the probation service since 2021 when she had been on post-sentence supervision and had not had a community order for “several years”.

About the offences he said: “People have asked her to leave (the restaurants and convenience store) and she has been reluctant to do so.”

READ MORE: Bulmer was jailed for six months after she gate crashed an event in a four-star York hotel

READ MORE: Why a York museum banned Bulmer from its premises.

Alex Steadward, prosecuting, said Bulmer and a man were in Prezzo in Clifford Street on February 25 when staff asked them to leave. They refused and Bulmer, who was in drink, hit a member of staff four times on the shoulder, causing him discomfort but no injury. 

On March 26, Bulmer, again in drink, was in a Costcutter store despite being banned from it for harassing its customers. 

She was drunk and she pushed a member of staff who asked her to leave, causing the staff member distress and anxiety but no injury.

On April 20, she was in Ask Italian in Blake and again assaulted a member of staff but without causing injuries.

Mr Robertson said Bulmer was “led in her behaviour” by a man who had accompanied her in Prezzo.

In the Costcutter incident she had ended up on the floor and “someone got hit on the head” by a baguette Bulmer was trying to buy.

She is now getting help from several organisations.

“Quite a lot of agencies are involved,” he said. “She has been allocated an address, and since that address was allocated to her, her offending behaviour has dropped off significantly.”