Upton Park women fined after inventing robbery to claim insurance money

Two women have been fined for reporting a false robbery to police to fraudulently claim money from insurance claims.

Officers from Newham police’s Robbery Task Force visited their home in Plashet Grove after the women said they had been robbed of their Samsung mobile phones and cash at knife point in the same street.

The 28 and 21-year old friends stated they had walked to Green Street to buy late-night snacks around 11pm on February 5 when three black men had demanded the items from them, wielding knives.

Police officers interviewed the women about their ordeal but they noticed inconsistencies in their accounts.

Initially, they accused the police officers of not doing their jobs properly and threats were made to make a formal complaint about the way they had dealt with their case.

But around an hour later, one of the women said she wanted to withdraw her allegation.

Both were warned of the consequences of making a false report and confessed they had invented the story to make a bogus insurance claim for the money, giving their mobile phones to a friend to hide.

As a result, the women were issued with an £80 Penalty Notice for wasting police time.

Ioan Looker, from the Robbery Task Force, said: “Falsely reporting a crime to police is an offence. Newham police will not tolerate this kind of behaviour.

“Anyone doing so will be met with my officers and be dealt with in the same way as these offenders.”