FALSE report a incident to police and you will be found out, as two people from Grimsby have recently found out.
Wasting police time is a criminal offence and since the start of 2014 Detectives in North East Lincolnshire have dealt with two individuals who have both false reported a burglary at their home addresses.
When a crime is reported police have a duty to investigate the incident thoroughly and, it is often not until the enquiries get underway, that officers establish that an incident may not be quite as it seems. This was certainly the case with both of the false reports.
On Wednesday 22 January a call was made to police reporting that a house on Hainton Avenue, Grimsby had been burgled. The offenders were alleged to have made off with a Tablet, TV, Xbox and a Blue Ray DVD player. As the enquiries progressed, officers identified that this was a false report and the alleged victim was soon arrested and taken into police custody. The woman, aged in her 30s, was charged with one count of fraud by false representation, once count of wasting police time, one count of theft by finding and one count of criminal damage. She will be appearing at Grimsby Mags Court on Monday 17 February 2014.
In a separate incident a man living on Rutland Street, Grimsby reported to police on Sunday 02 February that his home address had been broken into and his 46ins 3D Smart TV had been stolen. Enquiries then established that the man had false reported this incident and he was interviewed by police. He was handed a fixed penalty.
People may think that by making a false report for any offence, not just burglary, they might be able to make an easy claim on their insurance. It needs to be remembered that this is not the case and you could face arrest and a criminal record.