A woman who lied to police and appeared in the her local paper about a made-up mugging has been cautioned for perverting the course of justice.
Trainee accountant Jodie Chapman said she was grabbed her by her wrists and had her phone and purse stolen but officers found no evidence of the crime.
Shameless Chapman spoke to her local paper about the bogus ordeal and even posed for pictures showing alleged bruising to her arm.
The 20-year-old claimed the attack happened yards from her workplace in Colchester, Essex on the morning of Monday, September 26 prompting the police to issue a witness appeal.
She told reporters: “I was just walking to work from the train station and saw a car parked up at the side of the road.
“The engine was running and the hazard lights were on. I became a bit wary as the back windows were tinted.
“I was thinking about crossing the road but then didn’t think any more of it, I have given people directions before.
“As I was within reaching distance, the man on the driver’s side grabbed my wrists and held me against the driver’s side window.
“He snatched my phone out of my left hand.
“He asked me to put my purse in the car.”
Chapman added: “There was another guy sitting in the back seat, that’s what made me panic.
“I panicked and just threw my purse in.”
She said a second car then approached which spooked her attackers.
Adding: “He [the driver] pushed my wrists away and they sped off.”
Colleagues at Knight Developments called the police when she got in to work and she is understood to have returned to her home in Chelmsford for a couple of days before returning to work.
Chapman also claimed she needed a tetanus jab from her GP after she suffered a scratch to her wrist.
Following “extensive investigations” by police, Chapman admitted the incident never happened and she had, in fact, lost her mobile phone and purse.
An Essex police spokesman said Chapman had been cautioned for perverting the course of justice
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