Dog owner's 'lie' sparked search for missing girl

A man who’d lost his dog sparked a major alert when he lied and told police his three-year-old niece was lost with the pet. Ex-businessman Richard Dale Jones was so distraught when his dog went missing that he invented a niece to trick police and emergency services into launching a search.

More than 30 officers swung into action to look for the missing tot, with help from the North Wales Police helicopter, RAF Valley, and the North East Wales Search and Rescue Service.



But Jones was caught out when police spoke to a family member who said that they had never heard of the niece he’d claimed was visiting from America. Then the dog came back of its own accord and Jones, at the time living at Gresford Caravan Park near Wrexham, broke down and said he had lied.

Yesterday Jones, 31, admitted a charge of wasting police time when he appeared in custody at Flintshire magistrates’ court in Mold. Sentence was adjourned and he was bailed to live at his grandmother’s address at Edinburgh Road in Acton, Wrexham.