Bradford mother-of-two who lied to police escapes jail (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Bradford mother-of-two who lied to police escapes jail

8:00am Tuesday 19th March 2013 in News

A mother-of-two who lied to the police that her car had been stolen after her boyfriend crashed it has been spared an immediate prison sentence.

Sabrina Doherty panicked and acted “from misguided loyalty” when she made a statement saying the black Vauxhall Astra had vanished from the driveway outside her home, Bradford Crown Court heard.

The vehicle had been borrowed by her now former boyfriend and it had crashed during a police pursuit, prosecutor Alun Jones told the court yesterday.

Doherty, 25, of Rowan Wood Gardens, Ravenscliffe, Bradford, admitted perverting the course of justice on November 24 last year.

Her car crashed into bollards between Stanningley and Pudsey at around midnight and several people fled from it. Police traced the car to Doherty.

After she lied to them, saying she had been burgled and the car stolen, she was shopped by someone who saw her boyfriend driving off in it, Mr Jones said.

Text messages recovered from her phone showed that she knew it had crashed.

Doherty’s barrister, Yunus Valli, said she was the mother of two young children and had lost her own mother recently. She was persuaded by others to lie to the police and acted from misguided loyalty. Doherty did not maintain her untruths in court but pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.

Judge Colin Burn sentenced her to four months’ imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, with a two month curfew order and a requirement to work with the probation service.