A resident of the British city of Blackpool, Lancashire, was sentenced to 16 weeks imprisonment for staging his own abduction. This is reported by The Sun.

The incident occurred in January. 45-year-old Lee Ford called his pregnant girl and said that he was abducted. "At first I thought he was fooling around. But the voice really seemed scared, - she recalls.. - The phone went off, and then rang again. Men's voices were heard, they shouted, threatened to break his legs and pour boiling water on him. ".

As a result, the girl believed and agreed to pay ransom. She managed to find about 80 pounds. She transferred the money to the specified bank account, and then reported abduction to the police.

The missing man was searched almost a day. Police sent helicopter, professional negotiator arrived. They began to check the records of security cameras and found footage on which the "kidnapped" and his friends left the store with bottles in their hands. It turned out that the frightened calls were fraud.

When Lee returned home the next morning, he was arrested and charged with wasting time on the police. An unnecessary rescue operation cost the law enforcement agencies 30 thousand pounds sterling. The man continued to lie until he was shown a video.

It turned out that the kidnapping was invented for the sake of getting money for drinking. According to the lawyer, in the store Li met an old acquaintance who was on the rocks, and decided to help him. The man told the girl that the idea was thrown by friends, and he was drunk and did not object. None of them thought that the rally would go so far and that the police would intervene.