An Australian man has been exposed for faking his own kidnapping as an extreme excuse to cheat on his girlfriend.
Paul Iera from New South Wales almost faced jail for his lies after sending a text message to his then-partner saying he was being held hostage by "unknown Middle Eastern males" over a $7,000 dirt bike.
The text read: "Thank you for sending Paul to me, now payback is a b**** bye bye."
It continued: "But I'm going to be fare [sic] OK, we will keep him with us until the morning wen [sic] he gives us his bike we call it square, no one's touching him my word I'll give you hun OK."
Like most concerned people, Iera's partner called the police, who launched a "high-risk vehicle stop" and spent 200 hours trying to locate the man.
They later found him in his own vehicle and obtained footage of him with a sex worker.
According to 9 News, Magistrate Michael Ong said: "You chose to send alarming, frightening messages to your partner so you could get some extra time with another partner.
"You thought that would be a great way to do it. Any reasonable person would have gone to the police and that is exactly what happened."
"You are at a point where you need to make a choice. You either take a step back, look at yourself and your circumstances and move towards furthering yourself, or alternatively you will move into a situation where imprisonment will be a very realistic option."
Iera was fined AU $16,000 (£8,400) for wasting police time and an additional AU $550 (£280) for firearm offences.
He was also reportedly sentenced to a concurrent 18-month Community Correction Order (CCO) for possessing an unauthorised firearm, possessing a prohibited weapon without a permit and possessing ammunition without a licence.
Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter
Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
