Alamy
A couple who spent all their money on a drink-fuelled day trip to the seaside INVENTED a missing three-year-old daughter in order to get a free lift home
More 40 police officers joined the search for the 'missing' child after the 37-year-old man and 20-year-old woman claimed she had not been seen for five hours after disappearing on the beach in Hornsea, East Yorkshire.
RAF helicopters were also drafted in, but low cloud prevented them from launching a search. Eventually it was discovered they never had a child with them, when a taxi driver told the police he had taken them from Hull to Hornsea in his cab.
The conniving pair eventually confessed to making up the story in order to get a lift home as they had spent their return fare on booze.
A Humberside Police neighbourhood policing team told reporters: "Realising they had insufficient funds to get home, they made up the story about the missing child in the hope it would get them a free lift home courtesy of ourselves.
"The mentality of these people beggars belief, diverting precious and finite police resources away from areas where there may well have been a genuine need for them.
"It transpired the couple did not actually have any children - probably a blessed relief as you could hardly call them fit and proper parents."
Hornsea Inshore Rescue who sent a team of volunteers to help find the child said it was 'frustrating' and that they hoped the couple 'learned their lesson'.
A warrant has been issued for the 37-year-old man's arrest after he failed to appear at Beverley Magistrates court on a charge of wasting police time. The 20-year-old woman admitted wasting police time and accepted a caution.
What an unbelievably STUPID thing to do.