An Inverness woman who falsely told police she had been mugged at knifepoint to get emergency cash from the authorities narrowly avoided a jail sentence yesterday.
Kelly Mulroy cost the public purse almost £1,000 by wasting police time after falsely claiming she was the victim of a robbery, leaving police searching for suspects.
It was only when officers spotted discrepancies in her detailed story and checked CCTV footage that they discovered the 35-year-old had made up the attack.
Mulroy, of 94 Assynt Road, appeared for sentence at Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday. Sheriff Margaret Neilson ordered her to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work within a year and serve 18 months under offender supervision, as well as attend parts of a women’s programme.
Fiscal depute Fraser Matheson previously told the court that Mulroy contacted police to report that she had been attacked by two men.
Mulroy claimed they both had Scouse accents and that one of them had a knife, while the other took cash from her pocket.
Supposedly the incident had taken place on the path between Fairfield Lane and Lilac Grove, but a private CCTV system was operating at the time and when analysed, showed she had never entered or exited the lane and neither had the men matching her description.
After being questioned again by police she admitted she had wasted police time and apologised, adding: “I made up the story so I could get an emergency payment from the council.”
In sentencing Mulroy, Sheriff Margaret Neilson said it was a “very serious charge” and emphasised that she was “lucky not to be on an indictment”, adding: “I am prepared to make a community payback order as a direct alternative to custody. If you breach this order in any way you will come back and get a prison sentence, a lengthy prison sentence”.
Mulroy’s solicitor, Marc Dickson, said in his plea in mitigation that his client had recognised her culpability and “genuinely expressed remorse” for what she had done.
He added that her actions were likely the result of the bereavement of a very close relative which “plunged her into the reaches of alcohol and drug use”. However, he stressed that samples provided since her crime were all clean.
