NEGRIL, Westmoreland – A schoolboy who allegedly faked his own kidnapping earlier this week in an effort to defraud his mother of money is to be slapped with charges, the police say.

A post that went viral on social media on Wednesday showed a photograph of the schoolboy and a message stating that he was kidnapped and brought to Scotiabank in Negril where he was forced to withdraw monies from Jamaican and US dollar accounts, and that he has not been seen by his family since.

Another post reportedly had his mother crying and pleading to his alleged kidnappers to take the money, but to spare her son’s life.

But all that was for nothing as police found that it was allegedly concocted by the youngster.

Zone Four commander for Little London and Negril Deputy Superintendent Shaunjaye Mitchell, in an interview with the Jamaica Observer, said: “We did in fact get a missing person report about the same child. Subsequent to that, we conducted some investigations and he was found in Green Island the following morning.”

“After he was found, he was interrogated by the officer at the Green Island Police Station where it was revealed to us he orchestrated the entire thing,” said the deputy superintendent.

“Based on having interviewed him on [Wednesday], we were able to adduce that he was the mastermind behind orchestrating his ‘kidnapping’ in a bid to defraud his mother of money he had access to. He even went as far as telling the police officers that he was robbed of his wallet and cellphone. A search was conducted of his schoolbag and they were found inside the bag,” the police officer disclosed.

He added: “We have since collected a statement from him and we are looking at how we can prefer charges against him relative to creating public mischief and/or other charges,”DSP Mitchell said.

Mitchell said the police treat all missing person reports seriously, but warned that individuals who may want to repeat such an act to reconsider.

“We’d like to urge other persons who may be considering this, that it is a very serious matter, especially in times when we have had issues with persons going missing. There are other ways to settle dispute with parents/guardians or anybody at all, outside of creating public panic,” he said.