Jealous Wakefield wife faked kidnapping

Zaitoon Alam, 45, walked into a police station barefoot and told officers she had been sprayed in the face before being dragged into a car.

Alam was also carrying masking tape, saying she had been bound and gagged, and claimed she had a box placed over her head during her ordeal.

Leeds Crown Court heard the mother-of-two claimed she had been abducted from a cemetery by two men in Wakefield on April 4 this year.

Alam also said she could hear a female voice during the incident and gave officers the name of a woman her husband was having an affair with.

As a result the woman was arrested and spent 27 hours in a police cell before Alam’s lies began to unravel.

CCTV footage was discovered which showed Alam taking off her own shoes and putting them in a bin before going into the police station.

Alam was also linked to threatening texts which had been sent to her husband and the victim.

Alam, of Ashdown Road, Wakefield, pleaded guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Christopher Dunn, mitigating, said: “This defendant has been caught in an emotional maelstrom which completely overwhelmed her.

“Not only was she married to the complainant, she was entirely financially and emotionally dependent on him.”

Mr Dunn said Alam’s husband had now left her and was living with the victim.

He said: “She is a lady of good character who has been a good mother and a good wife from the outset and finds herself in this shameful and embarrassing situation before the Crown court.

“It wasn’t committed out of revenge, it was committed out of sheer and pure desperation to attempt to get him back and break down the relationship because of the ramifications it would have on the defendant and her family.

Alam was given an eight month prison sentence, suspended for two years. She was also made the subject of a restraining order banning her from contacting the victim.