Legal News
Birmingham woman jailed for 16 months for misleading the court (29 October 2015)
Date: 29/10/2015
A woman from Birmingham who lied to the court about her personal circumstances to avoid a prison sentence has been jailed for 16 months at Birmingham Crown Court.
Denise Dickens, 24, from Rednal in Birmingham was originally convicted at Birmingham Magistrates' Court on 19 November 2014, after she was found guilty of having racially abused a police officer.
Dickens also pleaded guilty to assaulting a passenger on a bus.
In her mitigating statement, Dickens lied to the court about her personal circumstances – and, as a consequence, the court decided not to impose a custodial sentence on her.
Instead Dickens was given a 12-month community order, a 12-week curfew and was ordered to pay £50 in compensation and £120 victim surcharge.
However, following information disclosed to the police about the defendant's true personal circumstances, Dickens was arrested and charged with perverting the course of public justice, to which she pleaded guilty.
After sentencing, Senior Crown Prosecutor from West Midlands Crown Prosecution Service, Marion Bibb, said:
“We hope that this prosecution and conviction sends out a clear message that deliberately misleading the court in any way is a very serious criminal offence.
“In order to avoid a jail term for a number of offences which she had committed, Denise Dickens decided to lie to the court about her personal circumstances.
“When the police received information that she had misled the courts, Dickens was arrested, charged with perverting the course of public justice – and she has now been punished for her actions.”
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