Telford is being hit by a credit-crunch crime spree of false robbery and burglary claims worth up to £20,000 detectives said today.

People are using the illegal scams to cope with spiralling debts.

Detectives in Telford say they have seen a boom in the number of people claiming they have been robbed or burgled in a bid to make false insurance claims or reclaim their benefit cash numerous times as the recession grips the borough.

One man even told detectives he had £20,000 of property stolen, but during interview admitted he had made up the story to get a crime number for his insurance claim.

He was ordered to pay a fixed penalty notice of £80.

The latest fixed penalty fine of £80 was issued by Telford detectives yesterday afternoon, after a 20-year-old man, from Brookside, claimed his house was broken into and his car keys stolen.

The man admitted he had made the false claim that his Renault Clio, worth £1,000, was stolen during the alleged break-in after police interviewed witnesses who saw it being dumped.

Detective Sergeant Dave Pankhurst, in charge of specialist operations at Telford CID, today issued a stark warning to the bogus victims that they would find themselves in court once it was proved they had invented the story.

He said no-one gets a crime number before a full investigation is carried out.

“If you report a robbery or a burglary you will get a knock on the door from a detective,” he said.

“House-to-house inquiries will be carried out, CCTV footage will be studied and a full investigation is carried out.

“We are finding during the investigation process people are admitting they have made it up because they are in debt.

“Fraudulent claims are a serious offence and taken as seriously as the alleged reported crime and we will prosecute.

If we can prove the offence did not actually happen, the alleged victim will find themselves being arrested instead.”

Mr Pankhurst said it first started about two years ago, when people who rented televisions claimed burglars had stolen the cash tin off the side of the television just days before the money was due to be collected.

He said this seemed to stop when people realised they still had to pay the rental firm back.

Now, Mr Pankhurst said, the scams had escalated into false claims of serious robbery, when people claimed they had been attacked and robbed.