Two men were jailed by Teesside Crown Court (5 August 2016) for perverting the course of justice after one paid the other in an attempt to avoid a drink-driving conviction.
Joe Colliver, 25, from Middleham, North Yorkshire and Lewis John Purdie, 26, from Middlesbrough, were both jailed for ten months after pleading guilty to perverting the course of justice.
Colliver was also charged with drink driving and was banned from driving for 12 months with a five-month extension.
In the early hours of 26 December 2015, Joe Colliver was involved in a road traffic collision on Middleham Road, Leyburn when he hit a wall in his Mitsubishi pick-up. He abandoned the vehicle and was later arrested at his home address on suspicion of drink-driving after a breath test showed him to be twice the legal limit.
In an attempt to avoid prosecution, Colliver claimed his car had been stolen. However, officers did not believe him and the subsequent investigation by roads policing officers confirmed that he was lying.
Colliver paid £2,000 to Lewis Purdie to take the blame for “stealing” the Mitsubishi and being involved in the collision. Again the investigation revealed that the vehicle had not been stolen and Colliver was driving the vehicle when it crashed.
Sergeant Paul Cording of North Yorkshire Police’s Roads Policing Group, said:
This was a blatant attempt to avoid prosecution for the serious offence of drink-driving. Putting people’s lives at risk will not be tolerated, nor will lying to avoid justice for doing so. These convictions and sentences should send a clear message to anyone who naively believes that they can lie to the police and get away with it.
