A man from Porus, Manchester, must have thanked the heavens when he walked away from the Mandeville Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday a free man after trying to fleece money from his mother by faking his own kidnapping.

Nineteen-year-old Marvin Blackwood called his mother and told her that he was kidnapped, and that the kidnappers were demanding a $30,000 ransom.

The distraught mother told her son that she only had $16, 000.

The mother contacted the police and a sting operation was set up.

When the parties met it was the son who came to collect the money who said he was collecting it for the kidnappers, who were 'around the corner'.

He was arrested by the police on New Year's Eve and slapped with the charges of causing public mischief, and collecting money by false pretence.

When he appeared before the court today, his mother decided not to pursue the case.

He was admonished and discharged by Justice Oswald Burchenson who presided over the case.