STUDENT JAILED FOR FALSE RAPE CLAIM ...after taxi row over kebab-stained £10 note

ABUSIVE: Sophie Pointon A WANNABE cop who lied about being raped by a taxi driver after he refused to accept a kebab-soaked tenner has been jailed.

Criminology student Sophie Pointon told police officers that she had been sexually assaulted in the back of the cab she’d been picked up in after a night out in Leeds city centre.

Pointon, 22, rang the cops in the early hours of April 22, then continued the deception by signing a statement giving an account of the attack.

Leeds Crown Court heard the driver, a father-of-five, was tracked down and kept in custody for six hours.

He was also unable to work for four weeks as a result of the claim.

Kate Bisset, prosecuting, said the cab driver was interviewed and said he could recall Pointon being “extremely drunk” when she got into his car holding a kebab.

He said Pointon threw a £10 note at him when they reached the Hyde Park area, but he refused to accept it as it was covered in oil from the kebab.

The driver said Pointon then became abusive and ran around the car opening doors.

Ms Bisset said: “He did not think much of it at the time because such incidents with people who are intoxicated are not unusual.”

The court heard a recording of a conversation between the driver and a phone operator at his taxi office supported his account.

A GPS tracker fitted to the car also revealed Pointon’s description of the taxi journey to be untrue.

Pointon broke down in tears and asked if she could drop the charges when her account was challenged by police.

She pleaded guilty perverting justice.

Denise Breen-Lawton, mitigating, said Pointon, of Manchester, was studying in Leeds at the time.

She said her hopes of becoming a police officer were now ruined.

Pointon was jailed for 16 months. to