A Calgary man who claimed his neck was sliced by barbed wire on a popular mountain biking trail west of the city and then asked for financial donations online has turned himself in after RCMP issued an arrest warrant.
Cochrane RCMP said Friday they have charged Stelianos Psaroudakis, 37, with fraud under $5,000 and public mischief after investigating his claims of being injured in the West Bragg Creek area.
Earlier in the day, RCMP had encouraged Psaroudakis to turn himself in. He later showed up at the detachment in Cochrane.
Insp. Lauren Weare said Psaroudakis was genuinely injured earlier this month, but police believe he lied about how it happened to officers and the public.
"He did come in contact with wire, but he was riding an ATV at a different location at a different time," she said.
Weare said Psaroudakis suffered the injuries on private property where he was an invited guest.
"The injuries are legitimate, absolutely, but not in the manner that he reported," she said.
"There was no intentional putting up of barbed wire across the bike trail to hurt or injure cyclists."