A 7'2'' giant has been jailed for stealing flares from a fisherman's boat and using them to spark a bogus search operation which cost the RNLI £4,000.
Jude Medcalf also posed as a police officer on three different occasions, once telling the Devon and Cornwall control room he was a London detective on holiday in Torbay.
Medcalf was spared jail for an earlier crime spree in March after a Judge took pity on him because he suffers from a rare growth disorder which means he is too big for a prison bed.
He was given a chance to turn his life around but within two months he started offending again when he posed special constable after residents complained about him using a laser torch in a quiet street.
He told them he was on an undercover mission and went on to invent more bizarre stories when he rang the police and posed as an off duty detective who was reporting anti social behaviour.
Medcalf made more phoney calls on the same night in which he broke into a fishing boat in Torquay Harbour and stole three flares. He rang the coastguards and claimed he had seen the distress flares in the bay.
The Torbay lifeboat was launched and spent four hours searching in vain for a sailor in distress. The crew were out most of the night and the shout cost the RNLI £4,000.
Medcalf, aged 24, of Manor Court, Kingskerswell, near Newton Abbot, admitted three offences of impersonating a police officer, three of making malicious calls, and three thefts. He asked for two more to be considered.
He was jailed for a total of 20 months by Judge Francis Gilbert, QC, who told him it was time he put an end to his offending.
He told him:"The theft of the flares from a fisherman's boat was a very serious offence and potentially a very harmful thing to do. Fortunately he discovered it when the boat was still moored but had he done so while at sea and in an emergency, he might well have been able to alert the emergency services.
"Flares are not fired for fun. They are a very important safety device, as I well know as I have my own boat. You called Brixham Coastguard in the early hours of the same night saying you had seen flares fired in the harbour.
"The lifeboat was launched and the crew were at sea for four hours looking for a mythical person in distress. They were not there because this was a malicious and bogus call with cost the RNLI £4,000.
"That was a very serious thing to do. It meant the lifeboatmen were out in the middle of the night looking for something that simply did not exist.
"When you were sentenced in March the Judge took pity on you because of your medical condition and imposed a community order but you have gone on committing offences regardless.
"The time has come when you have to be punished properly rather than sympathetically."
Medcalf suffers from an extreme form of a genetic disorder called Klinefelter Syndrome which has led to him continuing to grow to the height of 7'2'' and has been blamed in the past for his anti-social behaviour and dishonesty.
Mr David Bowen, prosecuting, said Medcalf claimed to be a Detective Chief Inspector with the Met Police, a Special Constable and an undercover officer in three different hoax calls.
In one call he posed as a police officer to tell a woman that her foster brother had been injured in a car crash as revenge for her rebutting his sexual advances.
Medcalf also sparked a sea search when he stole and let off the flares, which were later found burned out on a nearby beach.
He said:"Within 30 minutes of the theft, the flares were seen in the Torbay area and Medcalf telephoned the coastguard in a distress call. The Torbay lifeboat was launched and a full search and rescue lasting four hours resulted."
He went on to call the Torquay harbour master to report a boat adrift at Brixham but his voice was recognised and the hoax was ignored.
Mr Jeffrey Segan, defending, passed the Judge medical reports detailing Medcalf's condition and how it would mean any prison sentence would be especially difficult for him.
He said that apart from his further offending Medcalf had done very well on the community order, finding work with a woodland project based at Dartington.
