A MARRIED woman who had consensual sex with a taxi driver is facing a possible jail sentence after claiming the man had raped her.
Chantel Clark, 36, caused police to to launch a major inquiry, at a cost of £3,000 to the public purse, after claiming she had been sexually assaulted by the cab driver in May 2014.
Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard how the subsequent probe cost the taxpayer thousands of pounds.
The court heard how the man was arrested by cops who charged him with rape after it was claimed he had carried out the sexual assault in Midlothian.
He had appeared in court on the allegation before Clark admitted she had had told a lie.
The court heard how the man, who wasn't named in court, has had marriage problems since Clark came forward.
He has also had problems with his taxi licence.
Clark, of Dalkeith, Midlothian, pleaded guilty to a charge of falsely making a rape claim before Sheriff Alistair Noble.
Depute procurator fiscal Brent Bissett told the court that Clark had sex with the man after he picked her up in his taxi at 3.20am on May 11 2014.
The supposed sexual assault took place somewhere in Midlothian.
When she got back to her home in Dalkeith, she told her husband that the driver had sexually assaulted her.
Detectives were then contacted and Clark, a first offender, told them untruths about what had happened.
Mr Bissett said detectives then tracked the man down and took him into custody.
He added: "The police arrested the man and charged him with rape. He appeared in court the following day."
Clark then contacted the police to retract her confession the day after the alleged attack.
However, the court heard that specialist rape investigation officers were unable to speak to her for another few days.
The court heard that officers did not have the resources to speak to her straightaway.
When members of CID finally contacted Clark, she told them that she had made the story up.
Mr Bissett added: "She admitted to officers that she had been lying and that the sexual intercourse had been consensual. She told officers that she wished to retract her confession.
"She told officers that she had felt awful about what she had done and wished to apologise to everybody concerned."
Police then arrested and charged Clark with making a false allegation and preventing the police from investigating actual crime.
The procurator fiscal in Edinburgh then stopped the case against the taxi driver, marking the case against him as 'no proceedings'.
Mr Bissett told the court: "He has said that there have been issues with regards to his marriage and business issues with regards to his taxi licence."
The court heard that she told police officers: "I feel so ashamed. I have been unable to sleep or eat.
"I want to apologise for the problems I have caused."
Clark wept and blew her nose as defence solicitor advocate Andrew Houston addressed the court on her behalf.
Mr Houston said the matter had 'snowballed' out of her control but that she had attempted to make amends.
He said that Clark had been crying when her husband suddenly asked her whether she had been raped.
She had replied "yes," but she contacted police once she realised the problems she had created.
Sheriff Noble deferred sentence on Cark for the court to obtain reports, but warned her that she could be sent to prison.
He added: "All options are obviously open."
Clark will be sentenced at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on April 14 2015.
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French police have raided the Paris offices of the Uber taxi app company as part of an investigation into its controversial ride-sharing service.
The headquarters of the French branch of the US-based firm was targeted at the request of the Paris prosecutor's office.
The inquiry centres on the UberPop smartphone application, which puts non-professional drivers with their own cars in touch with passengers via their mobile phones or a website, for rides at low-cost rates.
The company called the raid an "attempt at intimidation", adding that dozens of non-professional UberPop users had been fined since the start of the year.
Uber, which operates in about 250 cities in 50 countries, has become an object of scorn from traditional taxi companies fighting for survival against the rise of the Silicon Valley challenger, founded in 2009.
"We see this raid as a disproportionate action carried out on a very fragile legal basis," Uber France boss Thibaud Simphal told the website of L'Obs magazine.
Earlier this month hundreds of taxi drivers from Belgium and France brought central Brussels to a virtual standstill with their vehicles in a protest against the web-based Uber.
Around 100 French taxi drivers travelled to Brussels to take part in the protest.
UberPop is technically illegal in France, but the company has appealed a €100,000 fine it received last year.
Uber's American founder, Travis Kalanick, has said the system will create 50,000 new jobs in Europe this year, and help take 400,000 cars off the road by encouraging drivers to use taxis instead of their own vehicles.
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