AN ambulance chief today warned that assaults on staff would not be tolerated after a woman was ordered to pay £75 compensation to a paramedic she attacked.

Mick Whitam, an ambulance technician, was verbally abused and injured when keys were pressed into the back of his hand.

Karen Coyne, 22, of Burnley, pleaded guilty to an offence of common assault. She was granted a conditional discharge by Pennine magistrates at Burnley, who ordered her to pay the £75 compensation to Mr Whitham, who is stationed at Altham and lives in Burnley.

The incident happened when Coyne was taken to hospital suffering from a head injury. It was alleged she attacked Mr Whitham as she was being helped from the ambulance.

In the last year, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of attacks on Lancashire ambulance personnel. Forty-six incidents were reported in the three months up to July and last year's figure almost doubled from 68 to 112.

The incidents include physical assault, extreme verbal abuse and threatening behaviour.

A recent report said staff in East Lancashire were now as likely to be assaulted as their counterparts in the bigger cities of Manchester and Liverpool.

Tony Dixon, senior operations manager for the East Lancashire area of the ambulance service, said today: "We really want to highlight the situation that we are not prepared to tolerate assaults on our staff any longer.

"We are actively encouraging them to report incidents and assisting them to take out prosecutions wherever possible."

Mr Dixon said the ambulance service believed that anyone convicted of an attack on ambulance personnel should be sentenced with the same severity as an assault on police.

He added: "After all both are public servants just trying to do a job. I consider a light or lenient sentence is not appropriate in a situation where a member of staff has been abused or assaulted.

"Senior officers in the service are concerned to know that everyone is doing whatever they can to reduce victimisation of ambulance personnel."