Man faked his own kidnapping so he could meet his mistress

The tradesman has now been handed a £8,500 bill to compensate hours of police work

Paul Iera, pictured outside Woolongong Local Court, admitted faking his own kidnapping (Nine News Australia)

A tradesman faked his own kidnapping to spend New Year’s Eve with his mistress - only to be caught when his alarmed partner alerted police.

Paul Iera, 35, from Woolongong in New South Wales in Australia, narrowly avoided jail after admitting to come up with the fanciful scenario in a desperate attempt to cover his cheating.

Woolongong Local Court heard how he left his partner on December 31 to meet his mistress, initially telling her he was meeting a “financial guy”. But when he sought to stay away a while longer, he came up with the kidnapping hoax.

His partner then received a text with a fake ransom message which read: “Thank you for sending Paul to me, now payback is a ***** bye bye. We will keep him with us until the morning wen (sic) he gives us his bike we call it square.”

Having read it, Iera’s partner panicked and called the local Lake Illawarra Police District, which set up a task force - named Strike Force Evision - and put in 200 hours police work to investigate the alleged kidnapping.

Less than 24 hours later, Iera was discovered by officers in his white van along with his lover. But bizarrely, Iera continued his story and told officers he had been taken by a group of unknown Middle Eastern men and was later let go.

However, 12 days later, his story fell apart and he was arrested and charged with making a false accusation with the intent to subject another person to investigation.

In court, magistrate Michael Ong slammed his “abhorrent behaviour”. He added: “You chose to send alarming, frightening messages to your partner so you could get some extra time with another partner.

“You thought that would be a great way to do it. Any reasonable person would have gone to the police and that is exactly what happened.”

Iera was served a three-year community correction order, and ordered to pay around £8,500 in compensation for the work by police.