A MAN who lied to the police saying that his damaged Audi A4 had been stolen in a break-in has been jailed for ten months. 

The judge imprisoning Mark Mitchell at Bradford Crown Court today warned that such offending struck at the heart of the justice system and others must be deterred from telling falsehoods as an easy way out of scrapes. 

Mitchell, 39, of Hawthorn Close, Keighley, pleaded guilty to intending to pervert the course of public justice by making a report of a burglary to the police on July 28, 2021.  

He also admitted committing fraud by dishonestly making a false representation that a car had been stolen intending to make a gain for himself in the region of £7,000.  

Prosecutor Bashir Ahmed said Mitchell collided with a Toyota Corolla on Halifax Road in Keighley on the evening of July 27, 2021. 

The vehicle, belonging to a woman with health problems, was written off. 

Mitchell’s Audi was found pushed into a wall close to the scene. It too was severely damaged and an insurance write-off. 

Mitchell told the police the day after the collision that his car keys had been stolen in a burglary and the £9,000 Audi taken from the drive. 

He contacted his insurance company and in September, 2021, they agreed to pay the finance company £7,250. 

Mr Ahmed stated that although the money went straight to the company, it was money that Mitchell didn’t have to pay. 

In December that year, the police learned that his saliva was on the deployed airbag in the Audi. 

He was arrested in May last year and admitted he was the driver involved in the collision. He said he was distracted because he was on his phone. 

Mitchell confessed to abandoning the car and running off. 

He apologised to the police for ‘messing them about.’ 

He had one previous conviction for driving over the prescribed limit.  

Lily Wildman said in mitigation that he accepted the very serious position he had put himself and his family in. He had held his hands up to the offences and his remorse was genuine. 

He had no previous convictions for dishonesty or fraud and it was ‘short opportunistic offending.’ 

Mitchell was the sole earner in the household and his partner and children would be impacted if he went to prison. 

Judge Jonathan Rose said that perverting the course of justice was like throwing a rock into a pool of water with ripples spreading out causing damage. 

“One of those ripples is taking you to a prison sentence for this grave offence,” he stated. 

All Mitchell had to do was to accept responsibility for his actions. But he made a determined decision to pervert the course of justice in a carefully considered course of action. 

He wasted police time on the burglary when they could have been investigating other crimes. 

Judge Rose warned that Mitchell and those like him who thought there was ‘an easy way out to scrapes’ by lying to the police would receive immediate prison sentences as a punishment and a deterrent to others. 

Mitchell was banned from driving for 17 months.