AN INNOCENT man had to face court after a car driver gave police a false name.
Wayne Smith was summoned to court and had to prove to police he had not been driving the car pulled over in Ovenden, Halifax.
Judge Jonathan Rose told 22-year-old Liam McLaughlin, the man who had been driving, that he would have been facing prison
for perverting the course of justice if he had not turned his life around.
McLaughlin, of Green Lane, Bradshaw, Halifax, was stopped by police on February 25 2008 and told police he was called Wayne Smith, giving them Mr Smith's correct date of birth.
"The giving of a false name isn't a bit of a laugh that nobody minds. It's an extremely serious matter," said Judge Rose. "Mr Smith had to provide fingerprints.
"For an innocent man that was an ordeal," said the judge.
Police finally tracked McLaughlin down and arrested him in October 2009.
"McLaughlin has now got a job, passed his driving test and looks like he is going on the straight and narrow," said Judge Rose.
He was given a 26-week sentence, suspended for two years, at Bradford Crown Court.
McLaughlin, who still has hours of unpaid work to do for another offence, was told to do 280 more hours of unpaid work.
The judge told him: "There is no second chance in front of me. If you
breach this you will go to prison. You've had a very close shave."
