Dalton-in-Furness businessman jailed for perjury (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Dalton-in-Furness businessman jailed for perjury

3:12pm Friday 12th March 2010

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A SKIP hire businessman who made a “cynical attempt” to evade a conviction at the magistrates court has been jailed for six months.

John Cooper had disputed that a police officer found him using a mobile phone at the wheel of a wagon.

At a Furness Magistrates’ Court hearing he was said to have bolstered his false story by producing a letter he had conned from a shop, to say he had a hands free system in his cab at the time.

Sentencing him following a trial at Preston Crown Court, Judge Robert Brown told him: “This was a cynical attempt by you to evade what was a perfectly proper conviction in the magistrates court for a comparatively minor offence of using a mobile phone while driving one of your HGV’s.

“The offence, in my view, was aggravated by the fact that you drew into your subterfuge a manager at Halfords who had fitted a hands-free kit to your cab.

"You tricked him into signing a letter.

"He agreed to sign it because he relied on your honesty in reminding him of the date it was fitted”.

The court was told that the vehicle was fitted with the hands-free system - but after the date he was stopped by police in May 2008.

Cooper, of Coronation Drive, Dalton had denied a charge of perjury.

The court was told that in May 2008 a policewoman was said to have stopped him for using a mobile at the wheel of one of his wagons.

He disputed that and gave evidence to Barrow magistrates in January last year.

He was found guilty by the magistrates and an alleged perjury was discovered when police looked into the matter.

Jeffrey Samuels QC, defending, said: “The business will continue.

"But the business depends essentially on him getting new work in and to service it.

"He has employees who administer it, but it is ultimately him who has the contacts and contracts that provide employment for others”.

Judge Brown said “The importance of perjury is that it is a direct attack on the administration of justice.”

“The way the courts deal with persons who commit perjury is bound to have an element, not only of punishment of the offender, but a deterrent to discourage other persons from following in the same way.”

Cooper was ordered to pay £1,200 towards the costs of the prosecution.

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