Magistrate scolds woman who faked her kidnapping: Police time is valuable

A COUVA magistrate, scolding a woman who last month falsely reported she and her six-year-old son were kidnapped, said she wasted valuable police resources.

“Police time is valuable. You are not going to get away scot free. Justice must be done,” senior magistrate Siumongal Ramsaran yesterday told Sapna Chinya, 33, in the Couva Magistrates Court.

The magistrate said police at the time could have been responding to a credible crime but was made to investigate a claim of a false kidnapping.

Ramsaran said the woman made the false report to save herself after spending her husband’s money, but must stand the consequences of her actions.

Chinyan, 33, of Carli Bay, Couva admitted she had used the family’s savings of $30,000 to fund her habit of gambling, and making the false report was her way out.

She was charged with wasting police time and pleaded guilty to the charge, laid by PC Visham Ramoutar of the Couva CID.

Prosecutor Sgt Lincoln Bonnett had told the court Couva police received a report last month that a woman and her child had been abducted from their home and taken to the Southern Main Road, Claxton Bay by four unarmed men of African descent in a brown Nissan Almera car.

Attorney Natasha Mongroo represented the mother of one. Mongroo said her client used to do catering but stopped when sales slowed down and was now unemployed. She reiterated that her client was sorry for her actions and said she was expected to start sessions this week at the Gamblers Anonymous association in Port of Spain.

The magistrate referred Chinyan to a community service officer who would determine if she is a candidate for community service. The case was adjourned to Wednesday.

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