Policewoman who lied she had been sexually assaulted after turning up late for work is jailed again after having sentence increased

By PATRICK HARRINGTON, UK NEWS REPORTER Published: 11:46, 29 July 2026 | Updated: 11:49, 29 July 2026 A policewoman who lied that a colleague had sexually assaulted her to explain being late for work has been ordered back to prison after her sentence was extended. Former PC Lauren Evans, 35, claimed she was pulled over by an unmarked car and subjected to an intimate body search by a plain-clothes officer on the A20 in south-east London in March 2023. A major investigation led to an innocent man, PC Alex Watson, being arrested in front of his own children – before the story was exposed as a lie. Evans, from Maidstone, Kent, was jailed for a year in March after a jury found her guilty of perverting the course of justice. But the Court of Appeal has now increased her sentence to two years, after it was reviewed under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme. The former PC had already been released from prison, so she has now been ordered to return. Evans, who was based at Bromley Police Station, sent a message to senior officers saying 'I've just been pulled over!!' while she was running late for her shift. She ultimately arrived for work on time but was flustered and repeated the lie to colleagues. Former PC Lauren Evans, 35, lied that a policeman had subjected her to an intimate body search when she was running late for work It then 'snowballed out of control', the court heard, as she began to embellish the fabrication with more details. Evans fed colleagues a detailed and emotional account of being stopped by a man in an unmarked car who said he was a Kent Police officer, who she claimed was called 'Watson', and said he'd carried out an intimate search of her body. An investigation involving more than 30 detectives and over 1,500 hours of work identified PC Alex Watson as a potential suspect,  By coincidence, he had been driving an unmarked car in the area at the time. He was arrested at his home in front of his wife and two young children, held in custody for 23 hours, interviewed, and suspended from duty. But further CCTV and ANPR analysis later proved no stop had occurred, and his vehicle never left the motorway, so he was cleared. Evans was arrested and later convicted of perverting the course of justice. A month later, she was fired for discreditable conduct at a disciplinary hearing and is to be placed on the Policing Barred List.  PC Watson said at the time: 'To make up an allegation of this nature I find disgraceful. I was treated like a violent criminal.' He added that he and his wife, who together had worked for 30 years in the Met, 'felt betrayed and let down by the organisation'.   Judge Martin Griffith said during Evans' sentencing her crime was 'all through a simple lie told in circumstances which must have had something to do with being late'.