A Polish man has been sentenced to 16 months behind bars in the UK where he lives after faking his own kidnapping. Mariusz Kaminski, 36 and a resident of Trowbridge, Wiltshire, failed to turn up to work and instead of admitting that he just needed a few days off to care for his mental health, he instead texted his boss with a bizarre story of having been kidnapped over an alleged £1,500 debt he owed to a man named Kenny. The truth is, he was texting from the comfort and safety of his home.
- Kaminski had been having financial difficulties. According to the Swindon Advertiser, things started to get difficult for Kaminski in the mid-2010s and by 2017, he was struggling to keep up with mortgage payments on his home in Swindon. Around that time, he also received news that a close friend had committed suicide in Poland and he began missing work. He soon returned to work and opened up to his boss about the money he owed, but then things were about to get a whole lot weirder.
- When Kaminski stopped turning up to work again, he had a bizarre explanation. Two days after he returned to work, he texted his boss and a female friend claiming he’d been kidnapped by three men who’d bundled him into the back of a BMW X6. He claimed the men drove him to an ATM in Marlborough to get the supposed £1,500 out of the ATM, which is when he escaped. He said he had been hiding in a bush for half an hour before walking to Great Western Hospital where everyone was looking for him, but really he’d been at home the entire time he was texting them.
- He asked his friend not to call the police. However, he also convinced her to take out £1,600 so that he was no longer at risk from the “kidnappers” that didn’t actually exist. However, eventually someone did contact Wiltshire Police to report the kidnapping and the force launched a 22-officer investigation and even interviewed two men they believed might have been involved (who where thankfully eventually released without charge).
- Kaminski eventually admitted that he made it all up. While it’s unclear exactly what his motivations were in pretending to be kidnapped other than perhaps to get the day off work and get some free money out of his friend, what is clear that he majorly wasted the time and effort of Wiltshire Police and worried his boss and friends unnecessarily.
- Now, he’ll spend 16 months in prison. Kaminski’s attorney asked the court for leniency and pointed out that he had a great job offer as a senior chef at a top restaurant. “This is highly unusual, almost bizarre, unique. Mr Kaminski didn’t commit this offence to get other people into trouble, to incriminate an innocent party, to interfere with or fabricate evidence to prevent his own prosecution. He had this foolish lie thrust upon him,” his lawyer, John Dyer, said. “He was in too deep and couldn’t bring himself to own up.” However, the judge wasn’t convinced and sentenced him to 16 months in prison as well as a £1,750 fine.
