Quentin Tarantino lied about going to jail, a report claims.

The controversial director has long-maintained he was incarcerated 'once' or 'multiple times' for traffic violations in Los Angeles while struggling to make ends meet as a video shop employee.

It is an anecdote he uses regularly to prove his authoritative understanding of police brutality after he was criticized for calling cops 'murderers' at an anti police violence rally in New York this year.

But according to a New York Post investigation, there are no records that back up his claim that he spent eight days being treating 'like an animal' because he couldn't afford to pay a fine.

In fact, his only conviction was in 2000 when he paid $871 to avoid eight days in jail for driving without a license and failing to appear in court, the newspaper reports.

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Quentin Tarantino sparked outrage by calling cops murderers in New York last month (pictured) and claims he understands police brutality first-hand because he was jailed. But records apparently show that isn't the case

At the rally (pictured) Tarantino said: 'When I see murders, I do not stand by. I have to call a murder a murder, and I have to call a murderer a murderer'

Tarantino has yet to respond to Daily Mail Online's request for a comment.

The director has referenced his supposed jail time in multiple interviews over the past three decades.

In 1992, he told Paris Voice: 'I spent eight days in the county jail on traffic warrants once.

'At first, I thought, "Wow, I’m going to pick up some great dialogue in here."

'But then you realize what a waste of time it is. They treat you like an animal, and nobody wants to be treated like an animal.'

His biographer Jeffrey Sparrow later went on to claim that he did in fact pick up dialogue inside, and used it in True Romance and Reservoir Dogs.

Writing in the 1995 book Quentin Tarantino: The Cinema of Cool, Sparrow quotes Tarantino as saying: 'I went to jail about three different times just for warrants on me for moving violations. You'd get stopped and you'd get a ticket and then some other ticket and some other ticket and I just never paid em. They had warrants on me for three years and eventually I got stopped and they sent me to jail. They stopped me and it's like three thousands dollars and I was making like two hundreds dollars a week.'

He then quotes Roger Avary (Pulp Fiction, True Romance), who said: 'During that time in jail he overheard all of the inmates talking and on one sheet of a paper in the tiniest writing you can imagine he copied everything down, and so a lot of that stuff that Drexl says in True Romance came from real life.'

Finally, he references a scene in Reservoir Dogs when the characters discuss being incarcerated over traffic violations.

Bad timing: Tarantino's comments drew ire also because they came just days after NYPD officer Randolph Holder (seen on the screen) was gunned down

This supposed first-hand experience has been a key defense for Tarantino as he defends his criticism of police during his promotional tour of his upcoming movie The Hateful Eight.

Last month, he attended a rally in Washington Square Park in the wake of NYPD officer Randolph Holder's death.

He told the crowds: 'When I see murders, I do not stand by. I have to call a murder a murder, and I have to call a murderer a murderer.'

Tarantino has since claimed his words were taken out of context as thousands of officers across the country vow to boycott The Hateful Eight when it comes out in December.

He told The View this week: 'I'm not anti-police. I’m not a cop-hater. They’re trying to vilify me as that.

'As far as I’m concerned, Patrick Lynch, the head of the NYPD union, is slandering me by calling me a cop-hater because they can’t deal with the criticism that I'm giving.'

He added: 'I obviously do not believe that all cops are murderers. I didn’t say that, I didn’t imply that. I was talking about these specific cases.'