Driver’s lie catches up with him
ASPEEDING driver tried to blame the incident on his uncle in an attempt to avoid penalty points. Allan Slater, 36, faced getting three points on his clean licence, but his attempts to blame a relative landed him with a suspended prison sentence and the loss of his licence.
At Liverpool Crown Court, a judge told the dad-of-four that a sentence of imprisonment was inevitable but he was “just able” to suspend it.
He sentenced Slater to nine months imprisonment suspended for two years, and ordered him to carry out 175 hours unpaid work and pay £735 prosecution costs. He also banned him from driving for 12 months.
Judge Anil Murray said: “You evaded penalty points due to your lies and you cannot evade punishment.”
The defendant, of Heathfield Road, Birkdale, had pleaded guilty to committing acts with intent to pervert the course of public justice but the judge said that
Slater was still saying it had been a mistake.
Judge Murray said: “In your letter you do not accept your guilt and say it has caused family problems. If it did, it is entirely your fault.”
Michael Stephenson, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court that on December 16, 2019, Slater was driving his Jaguar along Waterloo Road, Southport and was caught on a mobile speed camera doing 41 mph in a 30 mph zone.
He was sent a notice of intended prosecution which enables the recipient to indicate if he or someone else had been the driver, and he completed it indicating it was his uncle, Kevin Slater.
A further notice of intended prosecution was sent to the uncle. That prompted Kevin Slater to contact the court and protest vehemently that it wasn’t him and gave an indication that he thought it was his nephew who used a Jaguar.
He made a statement on July 11, 2020 to an officer, in which he said he had not seen Allan Slater for five or six years.
The defendant was interviewed by police on August 27 last year and said he had “made a mistake”.
Mr Stephenson said: “He made the assumption that it was his uncle driving at the time of the speeding ticket and he said it was a mistake. The Crown’s case is it was a deliberate lie.”
That resulted in the defendant being charged with intending to pervert the course of justice and his behaviour generated “a considerable amount of work in terms of inquiries for the police.”
Victoria Lewis, defending, said that Slater works as a self-employed handyman and is the family’s breadwinner.
She said that he has no previous convictions and in a letter “he accepts has caused an unnecessary waste of time and resources to the courts and his family.”