25/11/2005

Man jailed over London bomber hoax

A man has been jailed for four months for claiming to have been the fifth London bomber in the July 7 attacks.

Imran Patel, 27, was sentenced at Leeds Magistrates Court, after admitting wasting over 4,000 hours of police time with the hoax claim.

The court heard how Patel, who was from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, made the false claims to ‘News of the World’ journalist Mazher Mahmood.

The newspaper then alerted police, who arrested Patel at his home in October.

At sentencing Judge David Kitson said that Patel’s actions had diverted “valuable and specialist police resources” from pursuing genuine lines of inquiry.

Judge Kitson also said that an immediate custodial sentence was appropriate, because the offence was so serious.

(KMcA/SP)

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