Time wasters arrested

Adam Hewitt • Published 4 Jan 2010 12:00 0 Comments

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THREE people have been arrested for wasting police time after a report of a kidnapping turned out to be nonsense.

Officers said that on Sunday night at 9pm, a report was received at Loddon Valley police station that a man had been abducted - but he was found safe just four hours later.

Three 21-year-olds - two women and a man all from Reading - were arrested and one of them is also accused of possessing class B drugs. They have been bailed to return to the station on January 20.

Sgt Andrew Ainsley said: "False reporting results in resources being used where in fact there is not actually a crime problem. False reports also use investigative resources when they could be investing their time with valid lines of inquiries and victims.

"It is almost certain that the truth will eventually come out. False reporting wastes police resources and unnecessarily increases the fear of crime.

"People should not underestimate the seriousness of such behaviour.

"Anyone who chooses to report a false crime and waste police time will be dealt with accordingly and could face being put before the courts."

The typical penalty for wasting police time is an £80 fine, while at the maximum end of the scale someone convicted of falsely reporting a crime can face a prison sentence.

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