A WOMAN wasted more than 250 hours of police time after falsely claiming a man was involved in planned terrorist offences.

She admitted to falsely accusing her brother-in-law, and was sentenced in court yesterday.

Bushra Ali, 38, of Alexandra Road, Reading, admitted to perverting the course of justice in Reading Crown Court on September 29.

Ali had been sending multiple handwritten letters and images to Thames Valley Police and other government buildings in December last year, accusing a person of planning a terrorist attack around Christmas time in 2019.

FULL STORY: Woman jailed for hoax letters to the police claiming her brother-in-law was a terrorist planning 'a Christmas attack' in the town

It was discovered that these allegations were false, and the reason she sent these letters was to provoke an investigation into the target, hoping to lead to an arrest.

According to Thames Valley Police, the letters sent had caused "a significant amount of time and resources" to be wasted, not only by Thames Valley Police but also Counter Terrorism Policing South East, in order to identify the falsely accused person.

Ali had been sending the letters from December 9, 2019, until December 19, 2019. She was charged and sentenced to 30 months imprisonment on the same day.

Detective Sergeant Andy Beeney from Thames Valley Police said: “Ali used a personal vendetta to pervert the course of justice.

ALSO READ: Why Reading pub The Pheasant could be shut down - a timeline

“She wrote a number of letters, the first of which, she sent just ten days after the tragic terrorist attack in Fishmongers Hall, by London Bridge on 29 November 2019.

"This was intentional and Ali even accused the victim of her letters of being a friend and close associate of the terrorist who carried out the Fishmongers Hall attack.

“Ali wasted a significant amount of police time and resources and it is only right that she has been brought to justice for this distinct lack of respect for the time of police and its partners.

“Reports of this nature are taken very seriously and rightly so, however if you are found to be knowingly and maliciously wasting police time we will not hesitate to bring you before the courts.”