Pair who crashed when rowing lied about driver to cut excess
Two police officers Diane Reeves-Emery, 38, and Charlotte Eccles, 23, were yesterday found guilty of deception following a five-day trial at Stafford Crown Court, The Derby Telegraph reports.
A jury took less than 90 minutes to decide that they had tried to save themselves £250 by lying about who was driving to an insurance firm when their car crashed.
The lesbian couple argued after PC Reeves-Emery confessed she had kissed a man "intimately” and Eccles ploughed the Renault Clio into a kerb, causing £6,000 of damage.
Different levels of excess
Her excess on the insurance was £500 – but Reeves-Emery's was half that because of her age, so they lied about who had been at the wheel.
The scam emerged two years later when the couple split and Reeves-Emery was accused of a 14-month hate campaign against Eccles, sending scores of abusive texts.
The road smash took place on April 25, 2006. Reeves-Emery, of Alexandra Road, Winshill, and Eccles, of Blueberry Way, Woodville, were found guilty of obtaining a financial advantage by deception.
Recorder Daf Jones told Reeves-Emery: "You were undoubtedly the leading light behind this. You sought to brazen it out with a series of lies."
Reeves-Emery was also found guilty of a second deception charge after giving false information to a second insurance firm within days of the smash. The older police officer was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay £1,500 costs.
Eccles, not a serving policewoman at the time of the crime, was given a six-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £1,500 costs.
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