Woman arrested for allegedly lying about her kidnapping

A Nelspruit woman who claimed she was kidnapped during a house robbery was recently arrested by police for perjury. Andrea Schoeman, 26, appeared in the Nelspruit Magistrates’ Court on Thursday on a charge of defeating the ends of justice, Nelspruit Post reports.

Police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Erhard Stroh said Schoeman was arrested after police discovered she had lied that she was kidnapped during a house robbery while offloading groceries at night on April 16.

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She claimed the suspects fled the scene with her in a white Mazda sedan and a Toyota Fortuner. She added they had driven around the city in convoy until she finally managed to jump out of the car, and her apparent suspects fled the scene.

Stroh said during the police investigation they found that what was reported by Schoeman did not add up.

“We discovered items reported stolen at her boyfriend’s place at Cash Converters and CCTV footage and documents showed Schoeman had sold them there.” A laptop that was also “stolen” at the scene was found at Spur. Schoeman allegedly gave them the laptop after being unable to pay for her bill at the restaurant.

Stroh concluded that false cases reported to police wasted valuable time. “In each instance an investigating officer’s time is taken away from real cases, therefore depriving others of their right to justice.”

He warned that anybody who reported false cases to the police would either be charged with perjury or defeating the ends of justice.

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