A British woman was caught on video coughing at a police officer earlier this month while he was arresting her on suspicion of assault and property damage.

The woman, 39-year-old Charlene Merrifield, was stopped by the cop in South Tyneside following a call that a woman had attacked a man with a knife and damaged his car.

Merrifield angrily questions why she's being arrested and not the other guy, and the cop points out she was "going absolutely berserk" while holding bricks when he showed up ... so that's why.

She continues protesting as she gets in the police van and bumps her head, then proceeds to wildly cough in the officer's direction without covering her mouth. The cop loses his patience with her at that point and threatens her with jail.

Turns out, he was just foreshadowing where she'd end up ... because about a week after the incident she reportedly admitted to the assault of an emergency worker along with other offenses. Merrifield was sentenced to 21 weeks in jail.

Of course, her disgusting act is just the latest in a series of them ... including a Florida man coughing at a cop during an arrest, a Baltimore cop coughing at residents, a Canadian guy licking a bank door, and a Pennsylvania woman coughing on produce at a grocery store.