14 DAY TRIAL // 42-year-old Kim Collins, part owner of social club Big Club in Station Road, Boldon Colliery, in the UK, is facing trial for duping the police into thinking she had been assaulted and robbed, CSI-style.
As she started reporting a loss at the club, she had to convince her partner to sell, and made up a robbery, tying herself up and putting a gag in her mouth.
The Jarrow and Hebburn Gazette describes how police responded to an emergency call made by the club cleaner, who found the woman tied up and gagged, with cuts all over her body.
The caller was terrified of the intruder, that still might have been in the building, prompting 12 officers to hurry to the scene in a helicopter. Drugs were recovered from the scene as Collins was found, severely injured.
“On June 17, the police were called by the cleaner, who said she had found Collins tied up with a bag of cocaine near her. […] Collins had told her that someone had been in the loft waiting for her. […] She had cuts to her arms and legs and said the man had cut her and ran the knife across her body,” prosecutor Paul Anderson details.
As they questioned her, they were told an armed man had attacked her, after blocking the camera so he couldn't be identified.
“The defendant told the Major Crime Team that she had been asleep in bed when a man had come in and dragged her along the corridor to turn off the alarm and black out the security cameras before tying her up,” Anderson says.
Her story didn't stick up, as her saliva was found on the cable ties around her wrists, and her wounds turned out to be self-inflicted.
Collins had to admit the whole thing had been a hoax, explaining she just wanted to convince her partner that their business was in danger, and they had to relocate. The police had visited her before, when she claimed she was receiving threatening letters, the source of which was never found.
“She said she wanted to show her partner how bad things were so that he would agree to sell up, and so started to send herself the letters. [...] When that didn’t work, she came up with the plan to stage a break-in after watching CSI. […] She said she cut herself, tied her legs together then used her mouth to tie the cable ties before putting gaffer tape over her mouth and waiting for the cleaner,” the prosecution explained.
Collins has been charged with possession of a Class A drug, which she reportedly found in the club, one day before, and wasting officials' time and money, as the rescue mission proved quite costly.