POLICE fined a woman on the spot when they discovered she had invented a burglary claim.

The middle-aged Paignton woman had claimed her 52ins flatscreen TV had been stolen.

She told police that burglars had taken the television out through the lounge window.

But when police measured the window, they found it was smaller than the flat screen TV.

Detectives went back to the house with a search warrant and found the television hidden under an upstairs bed.

Det Insp Nick Wilden, the head of Torbay police, warned that fraudulent reports of crimes were treated very seriously.

He said: "When we looked into this allegation we discovered the window was smaller than the TV.

"We sent two detectives back to see her and the TV was found upstairs hidden under the bed.

"She was issued with an £80 fixed-penalty fine for wasting police time.

"She was lucky. She was a woman in her 40s, of previous good character and that's why she wasn't arrested for perverting the course of justice.

"When you report a burglary you sign a declaration to confirm that a crime has happened.

"We do have a small proportion of crimes that are fraudulently reported — whether to get a crisis loan from the council or to fake an insurance claim.

"We will take it very seriously because it ties up valuable resources and wastes police time."