Merseyside Police said an initial delve into his finances showed a high level of personal debt and multiple missed payments on the vehicle’s finance.
Text messages recovered from his mobile phone also showed him discussing how to get rid of the vehicle – including getting the car written off – in the months before the reported incident.
Daniel Travers, defending, said Owen’s plan was “frighteningly stupid for a man ostensibly reasonably well educated and intelligent”.
He said Owen, who had no previous convictions and came from a “successful, stable family”, had been described by his father as a Walter Mitty character who “lives in a fantasy world”.
Travers said Owen “never anticipated” the damage that would be done to Jaguar Land Rover by the negative publicity resulting from his story.
Sentencing Owen, Judge Ian Unsworth KC told him: “You set in train a course of conduct which caused a significant police traffic operation to be deployed, undoubted alarm to the public and very substantial loss and disruption to others.”
The judge said police officers placed themselves in danger because they believed they were dealing with a genuine emergency.
“You, meanwhile, sought to profit from a lie,” he added.
Owen was also disqualified from driving for five years and until an extended driving test has been passed.
