Leeds driver begged judge for another chance after she gave false details to police

Natalie Woollin shouted from the dock: “Please, I can’t do it, I’m working so hard,” as she was told she must serve a prison sentence for perverting the course of justice.

The 34-year-old eventually admitted the charge after being stopped by police on January 5, 2021 on Southfield Road, Bradford. She then gave her sibling’s details to police, prosecutor Carmel Pearson told Leeds Crown Court.

It resulted in her sister being prosecuted, being fined £880 and given eight penalty points when she failed to turn up for the court appearance that she knew nothing about.

It led to an investigation which finally found its way back to Woollin, with her sister suspecting she was behind the offending. When Woollin was finally arrested she gave a no-comment interview to police.

The court heard that Woollin, of Low Moorside Close, New Farnley, had four convictions for four offences, two of which took place after the driving offence. Michael Walsh, mitigating, said: “She knows she has placed herself on a precipice. All she can say is that she was wrong to give the details she did.

"As is often the case, it snowballed from there. She should have said something about it but didn’t. She did not think it would get to the stage that her sister would be prosecuted and bailiffs come to her address. To her credit, she indicated a guilty plea in the lower (magistrates’) court.”

He conceded that it “all points towards a custodial sentence” but said she had been making progress with her addiction, having become involved in Forward Leeds, a support organisation for people with problems with drugs and alcohol.

He asked if the inevitable sentence could be suspended to continue her progress, but Judge Rodney Jameson KC said “it must be immediate”, prompting the outburst from the dock.

He questioned why a drug addict should be “treated differently from someone with a perfectly good character”.

Judge Jameson jailed her for eight months, but also said she should have been prosecuted for not wearing a seatbelt and having no insurance when the police pulled her over.