Couple spark ‘missing child’ search for lift home

Dozens of officers were joined by firefighters and the coastguard after the girl was reported missing from the beach at Hornsea.

The search effort would have been greater had bad weather not prevented the deployment of police and RAF helicopters.

But instead it ended in the couple’s arrest after it emerged they had spent all their money drinking in the resort on a day-trip from Hull, and did not even have a child.

The woman, aged 20, was given a caution for wasting police time, while her 37-year-old partner was charged with the same offence but failed to attend court.

Writing about last month’s incident on a police website, an officer said: “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.”