By FARRAH JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
fjohnson@tribunemedia.net
A 20-year-old man, who lied to police officers when he told them that two men had robbed him of his car at gunpoint, was placed on six months probation yesterday.
Police arrested Mark Pratt after he caused the “wasteful employment of police time and resources” by knowingly filing a false complaint on April 2.
The court was told that around 5pm that day, Pratt told police he was near R M Bailey park servicing his vehicle when two men dressed in dark clothing approached him. The prosecution said Pratt claimed that one of the assailants then produced a handgun before both suspects got in his car and fled the scene. After he requested police action, officers investigating the matter made inquiries at the Migrafill monitoring centre. After receiving information from officials there, they arrested Pratt and took him to a local station for questioning. During his interview, the accused admitted making a false report and was subsequently charged.
When Pratt appeared before Deputy Chief Magistrate Andrew Forbes yesterday, he pleaded guilty. He also said he committed the offence because he “just wanted to get his car back”.
In response, Magistrate Forbes told Pratt that if that was the case, he should have just filed a complaint for his stolen car instead of alleging that he was robbed at gunpoint.
He insisted it was “unwise” for the accused to tell police a certain crime had been committed when it had not and urged him to exercise “better common sense” in the future.
As a result, he placed Pratt on six months’ probation. He warned him if he failed to be of good behaviour during that time frame, he would be fined $500 or sentenced to three months in prison in the event he was unable to pay the monetary penalty.
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