MYSTERY still surrounds why a man sparked a £40,000 police investigation by falsely telling police he had been kidnapped and then sexually assaulted by a male stranger.

Ashley Vaughan, 27, of Barnes Close, Willand, was given a 28-day jail sentence, suspended for six months, at Exeter Crown Court.

He was also ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work in the community within the next year and pay £350 costs.

Judge John Neligan told him: "Police resources are overstretched at the best of times."

Vaughan had pleaded guilty to wasting police time, as a lesser alternative to an offence of perverting the course of justice, which he had denied.

The court heard Vaughan prompted a major police investigation by saying he had been tricked into a van and molested, when he stopped to help a stranger in the road.

No reason for his behaviour was given in court at sentencing and he maintained the story was true even when he was being interviewed by a probation officer for a pre-sentence report.

Defence counsel Michelle Clarke said he was now accepting he had committed the offence, after Judge John Neligan warned he would not be able to sentence him if he was still denying it happened.

He was charged after police made inquiries into an alleged sex assault on the A375 Sidmouth Road, near Honiton, on March 26 last year.

It had been reported to police a man had been tied up and sexually assaulted by two other men.

Crime profilers from around the country were drafted in to help with the investigation.

Prosecutor Andrew Oldland said the defendant was living in the Gittisham area, near Honiton, at the time and was working as a herdsmen.

He drove to Tesco in Honiton, to buy groceries, then was later found by police, walking along a minor roadway, claiming to have been molested.

Mr Oldland said: "He told police he stopped the car to get out and went to speak to the man who was lying on the floor.

"As he did so, somebody approached him from behind and placed a rope around his neck.

"He was wrestled into the back of a van and tied up.

"While subdued in the van, one of the individuals involved in what was effectively a kidnapping him started to molest him… at that point, he managed to find a screwdriver and stab into the leg of the man.

"Shortly after, he was subjected to some violence while pushed out of the van, where the man swore and said, 'I know where you live'."

"It had been wholly without foundation and best described as being in the realms of fantasy. The cost to the police, estimated conservatively, was £40,000."

The court heard Vaughan had already pleaded guilty, at an earlier magistrates hearing, to a separate offence of wasting police time, involving a note left on a car.

Miss Clarke told the court: "He has five children and he's of very limited means, although he is a very hard-working individual."

Judge Neligan told the defendant: "It's got to stop. It's a very serious offence."