A father took revenge on his ex-girlfriend by falsely claiming she and her brother terrified him in a gun incident.

Martin Wood told police Nikki Gough’s brother Lee put an imitation pistol in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

The complaint prompted a full-scale armed police operation and the brother and sister were arrested.

But when they provided alibis it was 32-year-old Wood who ended up in custody.

Now, he has been jailed for 16 months after admitting perverting the course of justice.

Maidstone Crown Court heard Wood, of Waterloo Road, Maidstone, was in a relationship with Miss Gough for about six years and they had two children.

Anne Phillips, prosecuting, said it ended in January last year. Wood made the allegation on July 30 after claiming he received a call from Miss Gough asking him to go to her home.

He described to police how Miss Gough was in a caravan at her home with her brother and the conversation became heated.

"He said Mr Gough produced a gun from under a sofa," said Mrs Phillips. "He said he went over to him and pushed it in his mouth, twisting it and pulling the trigger.

"He said while one gun was held in his mouth, Mr Gough produced a second smaller gun.

"He held that in his other hand. He pushed the second gun away. He got up and walked away."

Mrs Phillips said Wood dialled 999. He claimed Miss Gough was laughing when the gun was in his mouth and was egging her brother on to shoot him.

The prosecutor detailed the various firearms officers deployed to arrest the brother and sister and Recorder Cairns Nelson replied: "Uncle Tom Cobley and all."

Miss Gough was arrested as she walked home from the shops with her youngest child on suspicion of threatening to kill Wood. "I was deeply shocked and distressed," she said later.

Mr Gough was returning home from work when he was arrested. Both were put in a police cell and detained for over five hours.

Mrs Phillips said both gave full details of their movements that day. Mr Gough had been at work and Miss Gough had been at Maidstone Hospital keeping an appointment for her child.

"Both were able to convince the police they had nothing to do with an incident," she said.

Recorder Nelson said any breakdown of a long term relationship was sad. But he added: "The fact is you were drunk and motivated by revenge and spite when you made an allegation of the utmost seriousness, that you were the victim of a sustained kidnapping in effect and false imprisonment.

"There is no excuse for what you did."

Wood was said to have drunk a massive amount of vodka and acted "no doubt out of revenge".

A former girlfriend had died in a car crash, along with their young child. More recently, he suffered an injury to his jaw and then lost his job as manager of a Chatham hotel.