Police are warning people they risk jail if they make false reports of crime.
Det Insp Ian Thornes from Kirklees CID issued the warning after a Batley man was jailed for eight months for reporting a burglary that never happened.
Police said Jabber Hussain Ali, 33, of Batley, was sent down at Leeds Crown Court after he admitted attempting to pervert the course of justice.
In January Ali told police he had been burgled and his car had been stolen. His car had had paint stripper poured over it and extensive damage was caused.
Det Insp Thornes said the sentence sent out a clear message to anyone thinking of making up crimes up and wasting police time, adding: “What Ali did was stupid and reckless.
“He now has time in prison to consider the consequences of his actions. When police receive reports of a crime we have to take it seriously.
“That means officers going out to the scene and starting an investigation into what happened.
“Such investigations take time and resources – burglary is a high priority crime for the force – and we initially treated Ali as a victim of a burglary and sent a CSI team to the scene to start an investigation.
“When we receive false reports it potentially takes us away from dealing with genuine allegations. As has been shown with the jailing of Ali we take such incidents very seriously.”
