CCTV technology has helped police in Hereford to take action against a youth who falsely reported he had been the victim of a robbery.
The 17-year-old male contacted police in January claiming he had just been robbed of cash close to the railway station in the city. He gave officers a description of the offender and stated he had been threatened with violence during the robbery.
Hereford Police immediately responded and five officers began to search for the apparent robber, assisted by the victim, without success. The victim also pointed out the area near to the Morrisions car park where he said the robbery happened, before giving a full statement as to the circumstances, again repeating the allegation of robbery.
Officers were assigned to the enquiry and an appeal was even made via the local media for witnesses to come forward.
A full review of the CCTV cameras in the area was then carried out by PC Keith Ramone and on checking the footage, it was found the cameras showed the relevant area at the time the robbery had supposedly taken place. The footage showed the victim' travelling from the railway station on his own, with no-one else around and no incident whatsoever occurring.
Police re-contacted the youth for a third time to confirm again that he hadn't been mistaken as to the location. He repeated that he was sure. Officers then confronted him with the fact that CCTV showed that the robbery had never happened. He was interviewed under caution and admitted making the whole story up and apologised for wasting the officers' time.
The youth was later reprimanded for wasting police time and for obstruction of police.
"Robbery is a serious crime which rarely occurs in Hereford and police made every effort to find the offender - but in reality it had never happened," said Detective Sergeant Tim Powell. "The fear of crime is a real factor in people's lives and false reporting of incidents in this way can have a tremendous impact and is regarded by police as a very serious matter. Aside from diverting officers from investigating genuine offences, it causes undue concern among the local community.
"Without the CCTV footage we would have had an unsolved robbery offence with a good description of a suspect. An innocent person could easily have been arrested in connection with the robbery, just by fitting the description and being in the vicinity at the time.
"Thanks to the CCTV images we were able to prove that the offence had never occurred. We are grateful to Herefordshire Community Safety and Drugs Partnership for maintaining a good CCTV system which regularly provides evidence which secures convictions at court," added Det Sgt Powell.
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