A WEST Cumbrian man has been prosecuted for wasting police time after he reported the imaginary theft of £295 from his bank account.

Derek Kenneth Yule, 40, reported the 'crime' at Whitehaven Police Station on February 1, telling an officer somebody had dishonestly used his bank card to withdraw the money. The money had been taken – but it was the defendant who took it.

At Workington’s magistrates’ court, Yule, of Crosby Street, Maryport, admitted the offence as well as two drugs possession offences.

He pleaded guilty to having the class C drug gabapentin on Friday, March 13, and on the same day possessing the class A drug heroin – two wraps of the drug.

Pamela Fee, prosecuting, said police checked CCTV in Lowther Street, Whitehaven, as part of their investigation into the alleged theft. The images clearly showed it was Yule who withdrew the £195.

On March 13, a police officer saw Yule fall off his bike into the road in Whitehaven. When challenged he was incoherent and agitated. When officers searched him they found 14 pregabalin tablets and the heroin.

John Cooper, for Yule, said he could not remember going to the police station to report a theft, but he accepted that it was him who had taken his own money out of the cash machine.

“It was not the most significant of police investigations,” said the lawyer. The amount of time police spent on the probe had been relatively small. Magistrates fined the defendant £120, with a £32 victim surcharge and £85 costs. There was no separate penalty for the two drugs possession offences.