Crossword Genius

The phoney siren goes off outside – nice diversion (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

insincere

'the phoney' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'siren goes off outside nice diversion' is the wordplay.
'goes off' indicates anagramming the letters.
'outside' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'diversion' indicates anagramming the letters.
'siren' anagrammed gives 'insre'.
'nice' is an anagram of 'ince'.
'insre' enclosing 'ince' is 'INSINCERE'.

(Other definitions for insincere that I've seen before include "Less than honest" , "may be laying it on" , "Dishonest" , "displaying hypocrisy" , "fake" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.
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