A woman who set up a fake online account to send messages purportedly from her ex-partner – leading to him appearing from the cells on Christmas Eve after he was wrongly arrested – has avoided a jail sentence.
Emma Crosbie was in the midst of a bitter custody dispute with her former boyfriend when she set up the messenger account in December 2015 and then went to police with posts which she claimed were from the man who she had been in a five-year relationship with.
He was questioned by police two days later, arrested and appeared from custody on Christmas Eve on charges of sending offensive communications.
But 26-year-old Crosbie’s wicked plan unravelled when officers investigating the case were able to track down the computer from which the messages had been sent and discovered it belonged to a relative of the accused.
They told police that Crosbie, of Corries Court, Arbroath, has accessed the machine at their premises and the accused came clean as soon as she was then questioned.
Crosbie admitted the Communications Act offence of falsely claiming to police her former partner had sent threatening and abusive messages from a social media service in December 2015.
The court previously heard that prosecutors could not put a figure on the cost of the police time wasted during the investigation.
Defence solicitor Michael Boyd told Forfar sheriff court: “She is a first-time offender but this is clearly a serious matter.
“This is a situation which arose during very emotive circumstances, but having said that I cannot underplay the seriousness of the potential consequences for the complainer in this case.
“She has been in a relationship with a new partner for over a year,” added the solicitor.
He said Crosbie had shown contrition over a matter described as a “one-off situation”.
Sheriff Jillian Martin-Brown said the false allegation had had an effect on her former partner’s ability to obtain family contact.
Crosbie was sentenced to 65 hours of unpaid work under a six-month Community Payback Order.
