Cleaner, 38, who fabricated campaign of harassment against herself and text herself, ‘I am going to slit your throat’ is jailed for six months
- Carly Buckingham-Smith sent herself abusive and threatening text messages
- These included a threat to ‘put petrol through her letterbox and set it alight’
- She even scrawled offensive graffiti over her house in felt tip pen, court told
- The cleaner was found guilty of two counts of perverting the course of justice
A woman has been jailed after she fabricated a campaign of harassment against herself and wasted hundreds of hours of police time.
Carly Buckingham-Smith sent herself abusive and threatening text messages like ‘I am going to tie you up and slit your throat and watch you bleed’.
In another, a threat was made to ‘put petrol through her letterbox and set it alight’.
A court heard the messages had been sent from a phone belonging to her and she even scrawled offensive graffiti over her own house in felt tip pen.
The 38-year-old cleaner of Eastleigh, Hants, made 11 witness statements to police concerning the texts.
However, following a trial at Southampton Crown Court, Hampshire, a jury found her guilty of two counts of perverting the course of justice.
She has now been jailed for six months in the same court by Judge Nicholas Rowland.
Carly Buckingham-Smith sent herself abusive and threatening text messages like ‘I am going to tie you up and slit your throat and watch you bleed’
He recounted some of the details of the case, including how Buckingham-Smith made three false complaints about ‘intimidating behaviour’ from ‘Asian males’.
The court heard this began shortly after she made an allegation against an Uber driver which was dismissed by police.
Buckingham-Smith had claimed the ‘harassment’ she had fabricated was ‘linked’ to this driver.
But during the trial, a jury heard police officers arrested after concluding she was making ‘false complaints and was attention-seeking’.
When interviewed about her ‘fictitious reports’ of arson attacks and men banging on her door in the night, she made no comment.
Judge Rowland called her campaign ‘nasty’ and adding that a ‘great deal’ of police time had been wasted.
Alarms and cameras had even been fitted at her property by police to catch those she claimed were harassing her.
Judge Rowland said police spent 69 hours investigating Buckingham-Smith’s ‘fabricated and spurious allegations’ and a further 500 hours surrounding her own criminal case.
Following a trial at Southampton Crown Court, Hampshire (pictured), a jury found her guilty of two counts of perverting the course of justice
He slammed her for using scarce police safeguarding resources in connection with the offences which happened between May and October 2019.
Defending, Ms Keeley Harvey said: ‘There must be something in her mental health that lead to this.’
She submitted her client would struggle in prison and be at risk of bullying, adding: ‘This is a lady who is determined not to be in a similar position again.’
Judge Rowland didn’t accept that any mental disorder played a part in her offending.
He jailed Buckingham-Smith for six months.
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