A Braintree woman who falsely accused a man of rape has become the first person in the county to be given an on-the-spot fine for wasting police time for this type of untrue allegation.
The woman, who is in her forties, made the claim on Friday evening. She told police that she had been attacked while at the Braintree home of a man in his sixties.
Detectives carried out extensive enquiries and arrested a local man on Saturday morning on suspicion of rape.
However, following investigations the woman later confirmed the allegation was untrue.
She was issued with a fixed penalty notice on Sunday for wasting police time and ordered to pay £80.
The accused man was informed that he was no longer under suspicion.
A police spokesman said :" It is probably the first time in the county that a fixed penalty notice has been issued in these circumstances.
"This allegation led to an investigation, which tied up officers and resources for a significant part of the weekend. This was a waste of valuable police time when those officers could and should have been working on genuine offences."
The decision to issue a penalty notice was taken by the officer in the case in consultation with a senior detective.
"We treat every allegation of this nature as genuine at the outset. The investigation will involve scene preservation and forensic examiation and we treat it as genuine unless we get a convincing case to suggest the allegation is false."
Published Wednesday October 6, 2004
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