Bentham woman warned she faces jail after lying to police over 'stolen' car (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Bentham woman warned she faces jail after lying to police over 'stolen' car

9:17am Tuesday 9th October 2012 in News

A WOMAN has been warned she is likely to go to prison for telling police her car had been stolen when it had not. Georgina Murphy, 26, claimed her car had been taken before it was involved in an accident on August 25, Carlisle Crown Court heard. In fact she was driving the car herself, but was scared to admit it because she thought – wrongly as it turned out – that she might have been above the legal drink-drive limit. Murphy, who used to live in Main Street, Endmoor, but has recently moved with her mother to Butterburgh, High Bentham, gave the police a signed statement that her car had been stolen prior to the crash. When the truth was discovered she was charged with doing an act intended to pervert the course of justice. In court Murphy pleaded guilty to that charge and to driving with neither appropriate licence nor insurance, and failing to stop after an accident. “She panicked after crashing her car because she wanted to avoid the consequences of possibly being over the limit,” her barrister Tim Evans said. “She deeply regrets it now.” Judge Paul Batty QC said any offence of perverting the course of justice was viewed seriously. “Virtually inevitably custodial sentences follow,” he said. Murphy was remanded on bail for probation reports and will be sentenced on November 9. But the judge told her: “I am afraid you should well understand that the fact I am allowing you bail is absolutely no indication of what the sentence will be.”