Father faked burglary in own home to get more presents for young daughter

A callous father faked a burglary at his home and claimed thieves had stolen his daughter’s Christmas presents in a shameful bid to get more gifts. Tim Wood walked into a police station hours after making the allegation and confessed to his wicked lie saying he couldn’t live with what he had done. Yesterday he apologised and said he held his hands up because he couldn’t live with the shame of using his two-year-old daughter Abbey to carry out his scam. But his own mum has condemned her son’s actions. She said: “I can’t believe he did this.”

Brazen Wood, 21, told police that thieves had ransacked his home in Seventh Street, Blackhall Colliery, and taken £500 worth of presents from under the tree, before throwing it to the floor and also taking his TV, microwave and electric fire. Jobless Wood then said he had “done his very best” to give his daughter the best Christmas he could. But he walked into Peterlee Police station on Friday and admitted he faked the burglary. After being quizzed he luckily escaped with an £80 fixed penalty notice for wasting police time.



Wood said: “I’m so sorry. I’m ashamed of what I’ve done. I did it because I thought people might donate Christmas presents and I would get some more for Abbey. The longer it went on, the more guilty I felt, especially using Abbey like that, and I wouldn’t want my little girl to be ashamed of me so I went to the police. I’m just so sorry.” Det Sgt Steve Thubron, from Peterlee Police, said Wood was punished with a fixed penalty, rather than being taken to court, due to his limited criminal record.

Wood’s mother, Margaret, 45, who lives in Tweddle Crescent, Blackhall, with husband, Neil, 44, said: “I feel absolutely awful. I just can’t believe what Tim has done. “He’s never been a goodie-goodie type of person but I never thought he would do anything this bad. The family feels absolutely terrible.” Det Sgt Thubron added: “The amount of time spent on investigating the case, including sending scenes of crime officers and officers to interview the alleged ‘victim’ could have been spent elsewhere. It’s unbelievable.”