A West Yorkshire police officer has been jailed for six months after he got his wife to help him try to dodge two speeding tickets.
Leeds-based PC Mark Hinchliffe, 43, who has now resigned from the force, and his 38-year-old wife Lisa, who left her post as a civilian staff member with the police last year, both pleaded guilty to two offences of perverting the course of justice at a court hearing last November.
This afternoon (Wed) the Bradford couple, who have two children, appeared alongside each other in the dock at the city's crown court and Judge Jonathan Rose said their offending had undermined the justice system.
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The judge said the case was a perfect example of a couple who thought they could “try it on”, get away with it and not come under suspicion. The court heard that Mark Hinchliffe had an impeccable record after 18 years service in the force and had been working as a Safer Schools officer.
His wife, who had been employed as a civilian staff member for 17 years, was described as an honest, hardworking mum who had thrown away her good character. Prosecutor Richard Walters described Mark Hinchliffe was caught on camera speeding twice in Morley while driving the couple’s VW Passat and Renault Megane vehicles at 37mph and 36mph on the same 30mph road.
After receiving Notices of Intended Prosecution Lisa Hinchliffe declared that she had been the driver at the time and she even underwent a “driver improvement course” in relation to the first offence. After the second offence she paid a fixed penalty and had points put on her licence, but a subsequent investigation revealed that her husband had been captured on film driving the cars.
The Police Professional Standards department launched an investigation and Mark Hinchliffe was arrested from Pudsey police station in January last year. Barrister Sarah Barlow, for Mark Hinchliffe, said he had short-circuited his inevitable dismissal by resigning from the police force.
She said he had been highly regarded in his local community and added: ”He is a thoroughly decent man...or was. He feels keenly the fact that he has let everybody down. Those who relied on him and had high expectations of him.”
Miss Barlow conceded that the fact that her client was a serving police officer would be an aggravating feature of the case, but she submitted that the offending was unsophisticated and they were bound to be found out.
But Judge Rose said the couple had “succeeded” by getting Lisa Hinchliffe to take the points and it was only assiduous police work that had caught them.
Miss Barlow said going to prison was every police officer’s worst fear and she urged Judge Rose to impose a short custodial sentence. The couple, who had no previous convictions, both admitted doing acts tending or intended to pervert the course of justice by falsely declaring to West Yorkshire Police that Lisa Hinchliffe had been driving their cars on April 30 and June 1, 2021.
Barrister Allan Armbrister said Lisa Hinchliffe had been “seriously misguided” in doing what she did, but it happened at a time when she had her own mental health issues relating to family matters.
He urged Judge Rose not to jail her immediately as it would have a significant harmful effect on their two children. Judge Rose sentenced Lisa Hinchliffe to four months in jail, suspended for two years, and ordered her to do 200 hours unpaid work.
He banned Mark Hinchliffe from driving for 18 months and banned his wife from driving for 12 weeks. Judge Rose said he was satisfied that Lisa Hinchliffe had been the “junior partner” in the offending and he had no way of knowing whether she had been pressured to get involved.
The judge said Mark Hinchliffe had been “emboldened” by getting away with the first offence and that had encouraged the couple to commit the second offence.
“Of course this is always a serious offence and of course a prison sentence will always be passed and, I’m afraid to say Mark Hinchliffe, even more so when it is a serving police officer who does this.”
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