A WOMAN who sparked a police investigation when she falsely claimed she had been raped on a train has been given a community payback order.

Karen Farmer, 35, told officers that a man had sexually assaulted her while travelling from Glasgow to Blantyre.

She had in fact consented to having sex with the man after the pair had a date in the city centre that she paid for.

He later ran off and left her once they got off the train.

Farmer later alleged the 23-year-old she had been intimate with was “aggressive and controlling” which lead to him being detained at his work and quizzed by police.

But the pair were captured on CCTV “engaging in consensual sex”.

Farmer, from Paisley pleaded guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court to falsely claim she was raped and causing police to devote their time and services in an investigation she knew was false.

Passing sentence, sheriff Kenneth Mitchell told her: “Any right minded individual would have little sympathy for the complainer."

Farmer will be supervised for the next three years as a condition of her order.

The court heard that on August 14, 2012 Farmer and the man went on a date in Glasgow city centre.

They were seen drinking and being "openly physically affectionate" by kissing one another.

Procurator fiscal depute Collette Fallon said that Farmer was under the impression that she would be staying the night with the man.

The pair later boarded a train at Central station that was going to Blantyre - where her date lived.

Miss Fallon said that when they got off of the train at Blantyre, the man told Farmer he needed the toilet but ran away from the station.

The accused boarded the train back to Glasgow and when she got to Central station she told police she had been sexually assaulted on the train and was taken to a police station.

The man was detained at work by police and questioned although later released.

Police viewed the CCTV from train which did not show any rape taking place. In October that year, Farmer was detained and later charged for wasting police time. Defence counsel Louise Arrol described her client as a "vulnerable 35-year-old"