Stalked on Facebook and framed for speeding
Student’s two-year ordeal over missing driving licence
A STUDENT was stalked for two years by a stranger who found her lost driving licence then tried to frame her for his speeding.
Ffion Stockden, 22, was tracked down on Facebook by Muhammad Boyce, who used the social networking site to steal personal details including her phone number and even turned up at her work.
Her ordeal began when Boyce, 24, was clocked doing 56mph in a 30mph zone in his VW Golf.
He replied to a police letter of intended prosecution by naming Miss Stockden as the driver on the day, telling police she was his girlfriend.
Boyce had picked up Miss Stockden’s driving licence after she lost it on a night out a year earlier. Police visited her home after the speeding incident in March 2016. She denied being the driver and told officers she had never heard of Boyce.
He was then arrested and interviewed. Yet, incredibly, he maintained his lies and told police she was a bitter former girlfriend. Boyce then embarked on a terrifying two-year campaign to glean personal details about her to back up his story.
He scoured her Facebook account and even tracked her down to the bar where she worked in Bournemouth.
He posed as a man called Jay to chat to her as he tried to get her to reveal more about herself – before admitting who he was and apologising.
Miss Stockden was subjected to several police interviews over the course of her ordeal.
She resorted to giving investigators details about hidden tattoos, piercings and operation scars that only a boyfriend would know about as helped them catch Boyce out. He was unable to confirm the markings and was forced to admit his lies.
Boyce pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice at Bournemouth Crown Court last month. But his victim is furious after he walked free from court after being given a suspended jail sentence.
Miss Stockden, who is now a trainee paramedic after finishing her university course, said: ‘I feel angry and bitter that he had got off very easily after what he put me through. I think he should have gone to prison for some time. I will struggle to get credit for the rest of my life because I have been a victim of fraud. It doesn’t feel very fair.’
Miss Stockden also warned of the dangers of social media, adding: ‘The whole experience has been a real eye-opener for me. I had some basic security settings on my Facebook account but it still contained personal details including my phone number which he used against me.
‘I never realised how easily someone can find out personal details about you when your accounts are not really locked down.’ She said when she first got a letter from police she thought it was a mistake.
She added: ‘Then a couple of weeks later I was asked to give a statement because the case had escalated. When I realised someone had put my name down I just thought it was a bit cheeky.
‘The police said they had spo- ken to a guy who said I was his ex-girlfriend and that I was driving, I couldn’t believe it.’
Boyce, of Bournemouth, was given a 13-month suspended prison sentence and six-month tagged curfew at Inner London Crown Court last week. He was ordered to carry out 270 hours of unpaid work, told to pay a victim surcharge of £140 and disqualified from driving for six months.
He also received a two-year conditional discharge for a second fraud offence in London.
After the sentencing, PC Sean Todd said: ‘Muhammad Boyce stole an innocent women’s identity in an attempt to get out of a speeding offence.
‘Even after he was challenged he continued to spin a web of lies to evade justice.
‘I hope the conclusion of this case will give the victim some sense of closure.’
‘A web of lies to evade justice’