The man who Pedro Miguel Quintal Antonio (26), of St Saviour’s Road, accused of attacking him was able to prove to police that he was elsewhere at the time of the supposed attack.
A charge of wasting police time was one of 19 offences committed in under a year by the defendant, who was sent to prison for 11 months and banned from driving for 12 months.
When he is released from custody, Antonio could be forced to leave the Island, as Assistant Magistrate Peter Harris made a recommendation for deportation.
Legal adviser Advocate Darry Robinson said that in September last year the defendant made a complaint of robbery and said he had been stabbed by two men, one of whom he could identify.
The man he named was someone he believed his girlfriend had been sleeping with.
The court heard that the man was interviewed but was able to account for his whereabouts at the time of the alleged assault.
Advocate Robinson said: ‘He told a lie in order to have a man arrested on suspicion of an offence that could have resulted in imprisonment.’
Antonio also admitted opening other people’s mail and stealing items, including a Lloyds Bank debit card. The defendant admitted eight counts of opening other people’s mail between 1 March and 6 April this year at Redwood Apartments in Prince’s Tower Road, St Saviour.
He also admitted driving without insurance. Antonio further admitted charges of driving while disqualified and without insurance on Avenue de la Commune, in St Peter, on 1 September. He also faces a charge of criminally stealing £25.05 worth of petrol from the Airport Motor Centre on the same occasion.
In respect of the motoring offences, Advocate Robinson said that this was a case of a ‘drug addict who is driving around the roads of Jersey without insurance’. ‘The court may feel that he is a risk to the public,’ he said.
He said that although the defendant had no record in Jersey, he had committed nine counts of theft and ten driving offences in Madeira.
In sentencing, Mr Harris said: ‘Antonio made a malicious allegation of an extremely serious offence. It is fortunate that the innocent person could show that he could not have been responsible for the alleged offence. This action was motivated by anger by his then girlfriend’s contact with the other man.’
