Wasting police time is listed as a

criminal offence In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

in many Commonwealth countries.

United Kingdom

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is Eng ...

, one can be charged with the offence under Section 5(2) of the

Criminal Law Act 1967 The Criminal Law Act 1967 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made some major changes to English criminal law, as part of wider liberal reforms by the Labour government elected in 1966. Most of it is still in force. Territ ...

when one "causes any wasteful employment of the police" by "knowingly making to any person a false report" which: *Shows that a criminal offence has been committed, *Creates apprehension for the safety of any persons or property, or *Indicates that they have information material to any police inquiry. The offence carries a maximum penalty of six months' imprisonment and/or a fine. Less serious cases may result in a

penalty notice for disorder In the United Kingdom, a fixed penalty notice (FPN) is a notice giving an individual the opportunity to be made immune from prosecution for an alleged criminal offence in exchange for a fee. Fixed penalty notices were introduced in Britain in the ...

of £80 for persons aged 16 or over and £40 for younger offenders. The same applies to

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

according to Section 5(3) of the Criminal Law Act (Northern Ireland) 1967. For

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

the

High Court of Justiciary The High Court of Justiciary is the supreme criminal court in Scotland. The High Court is both a trial court and a court of appeal. As a trial court, the High Court sits on circuit at Parliament House or in the adjacent former Sheriff Cour ...

stated in ''Kerr v. Hill'' that giving false information to the police constitutes a crime under

common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipres ...

New Zealand

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, one can be charged under Section 24 of the Summary Offences Act 1981 for committing either of the following acts: * Making, or causing to be made, to a police employee any allegation of an offence "contrary to the fact and without a belief in the truth of the statement". * Creating serious apprehension for the safety of any person or property (whether by statement or behaviour), either with the intention of causing wasteful employment or diversion of police resources, or being reckless as to that result. A person convicted under this section may be sentenced to imprisonment for up to three months, or a fine of up to NZ$2000.

Canada

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, the offence (known as public

mischief Mischief or malicious mischief is the name for a criminal offenses that is defined differently in different legal jurisdictions. While the wrongful acts will often involve what is popularly described as vandalism, there can be a legal different ...

) is defined by section 140 of the

Criminal Code A criminal code (or penal code) is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that might ...

: :140. (1) Every one commits public mischief who, with intent to mislead, causes a peace officer to enter on or continue an investigation by ::(a) making a false statement that accuses some other person of having committed an offence; ::(b) doing anything intended to cause some other person to be suspected of having committed an offence that the other person has not committed, or to divert suspicion from himself; ::(c) reporting that an offence has been committed when it has not been committed; or ::(d) reporting or in any other way making it known or causing it to be made known that he or some other person has died when he or that other person has not died. :(2) Every one who commits public mischief ::(a) is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years; or ::(b) is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.''Criminal Code'', RSC 1985, c C-46, s 140.

References

Law of Hong Kong Law of the United Kingdom