Police station in Fuengirola, Málaga. Daniel Pérez / Efe

A Spanish driver reported to police that he had been abducted, made to hand over all his earnings and forced into taking drugs in a sex club in Fuengirola, Málaga in the south of Spain. The police arrested the alleged kidnapper, but an investigation, code-named Operation Camerita, revealed that the suspect was in fact the man’s drinking buddy and that the story had been invented to cover up for having spent all the night’s earnings on a wild night out. The victim, turned out to be the suspect, and the real story very different to the one reported to police.

Pretending to be a victim of a crime can carry a jail sentence of up to a year or a fine

The man, who was working as a driver for a ride-hailing service with a VTC license, told the police in July that a passenger threatened him with a knife and ordered him to drive to a brothel in Fuengirola, where he was made to take drugs. Once he had spent all the money he had made that night, the man claimed the customer made him drive to a “friend’s house” to sell his motorbike in order to continue spending money on “drugs and having sexual relations with the women at club.” But the abduction did not finish there, however. According to the driver, he was forced into a taxi that drove him and his alleged kidnapper to a garage where he was held for several hours.

The investigating officers have concluded that the driver and the alleged kidnapper were known to each other and that the driver was not held against his will at any point. Rather, he handed over the money from the sale of the motorbike “voluntarily” because that was the agreement he made with his drinking pal. But he subsequently tried to justify having spent his night’s earnings and the money from the sale of the bike with a far-fetched version of events.

The police have warned of the seriousness of false allegations, not only as it wastes public money but also because the resources could be otherwise employed. Moreover, pretending to be a victim of a crime can carry a jail sentence of six months to a year or a fine, depending on the seriousness of the allegations.