Chef faked a kidnap to get day off work

A CHEF has been jailed after sparking a major police operation when he told his boss he had been kidnapped – because he wanted a duvet day at home.

Mariusz Kaminski, 36, sent a series of texts to his manager and a female friend, saying he had been bundled into a white BMW by three men.

He claimed he owed someone called Kenny £1,500 and had been driven towards a cashpoint.

But he said he escaped his captors and had hidden in a hedge for half an hour before walking to a hospital.

His friend, who he had warned off calling the police, took out a loan and gave him more than £1,600 after hearing his family could be at risk from the ‘kidnappers’. But in fact the dad-of-one had been texting from his home in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, the whole time.

A police investigation involving 22 officers was launched and two men were questioned before Polish-born Kaminski (pictured) came clean.

Salisbury crown court heard his tale of woe followed troubles in the mid 2010s, when he was forced to declare himself bankrupt and his relationship broke down.

In October 2017, he was told a close friend in Poland had killed himself. Distraught over his friend’s death and worried about his finances, he failed to turn up to his job in a pub on a number of days. On October 27, Kaminski told his boss he had debts from a previous business totalling several thousand pounds. And the next day he made up his kidnap story. After being convicted of perverting the course of justice and fraud by false representation, Kaminski was sentenced to 16 months in prison. Ordering him to pay £1,750 compensation to his friend, Recorder Roger Harris said it was a ‘unusual, bizarre and ultimately rather sad case’. But he said people who make ‘bogus allegations’ must expect jail.