Three months jail for British tsunami hoaxer

LONDON, (AFP)

A British plumber was sentenced to three months in prison Wednesday for falsely claiming that his teenage daughter - who did not even exist - had died in the Asian tsunami disaster.

Philip Bosson told police he had travelled to Sri Lanka after his ex-wife informed him their 19-year-old daughter Kayleigh was killed by the giant waves that swept the country's coast on December 26, 2004. The 39-year-old also claimed his ex-wife's new husband and two children had perished in the tragedy, which was triggered by a massive undersea earthquake in the Indian Ocean.

But inquiries established that not only was Bosson unmarried, he did not have children.

Bosson, from Exmouth, southwest England, was found guilty on December 13 last year of wasting police time and costing Devon and Cornwall Police 6,000 pounds (8,721 euros, 10,556 dollars).

Passing sentence, Judge Paul Farmer told him: "The generosity of the public and public services is to help those genuinely in need - you were not.

"By your actions, people who could have been assisted sooner could not be. You abused the generosity of others."The woman he claimed was his ex-wife and Kayleigh's mother, Michelle Dillon, told the trial they had never had a child together, she had not seen him for 20 years and was now living with her husband and daughter in northwest England. Prosecutor Neil Lawson told Plymouth Magistrates Court there was still "no clue, no rhyme or reason" why Bosson invented the story.

But defence lawyer Stephen Nunn said Bosson, who had a history of depression, had been to Sri Lanka after the disaster and was "genuinely distressed" at what he witnessed.

"It is hard to think of a case that could be more unusual," he added. Some 149 Britons - or those closely associated with the country - died in the disaster that killed 270,000, a coroner's inquest into the British victims was told last December.