A husband who attempted to take the blame when his uninsured wife crashed their car into a house was undone by her lipstick on the airbag.
Mother-to-be Sarah Smith, 22, has never passed her test and was not insured to use the Volkswagen Golf – so her husband Mark was prepared to take the blame.
His actions landed him in prison and his wife, from Sowerby, North Yorkshire, in the dock – although she escaped jail because she is heavily pregnant.
Mother-to-be Sarah Smith (left), 22, has never passed her test and was not insured to use the Volkswagen Golf – so her husband Mark (right) was prepared to take the blame
The hatchback ploughed into the side of a house in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, last year and caused more than £40,000 of damage
The hatchback ploughed into the side of a house in nearby Thirsk last year and caused more than £40,000 of damage.
The couple even persuaded others to turn up at court to tell a jury that they had seen 44-year-old Mr Smith behind the wheel.
But the jurors at Teesside Crown Court decided their story had no foundation when the tell-tale make-up was found.
The court heard that Mr Smith was not even in the car, but turned up at the scene quickly and insisted he had been the driver and not his wife.
The court heard that Mr Smith was not even in the car, but turned up at the scene quickly and insisted he had been the driver and not his wife
The couple maintained the story in police interviews and throughout a nine-day trial but were convicted of fraud and perverting the course of justice.
Mr Smith was jailed for seven months, but his wife’s seven-month sentence was suspended for a year after a judge heard she is pregnant with their second child.
Mrs Smith’s seven-month sentence was suspended for a year after a judge heard she is pregnant with their second child
Barristers for the couple said they still disputed the evidence, and suggested the make-up got on the airbag when Mrs Smith moved across the car.
Her lawyer, Andreas O’Shea told Judge Deborah Sherwin that she would not have had time to think up a plan before police got to the crash scene.
The court heard how the couple had been badly hurt in 2014 when a van ploughed into a horse and trap they were leading in a road, and both still suffer from mental and physical problems.
David Martin-Sperry, for her husband, tried to have sentencing postponed so he could instruct an expert to challenge the lipstick evidence.
He admitted that should have been done ahead of trial and told the judge that Smith had been ‘highly critical’ of the way his case was handled.
Mr Martin-Sperry said: ‘If sentence was put back, it might well be there is incontrovertible evidence, and if that is agreed, the conviction immediately becomes unsafe.
‘There is no element of wickedness as there so often is in cases of this nature. This is not a case of people trying to enrichen themselves.’
Judge Sherwin rejected the postponement request, telling Mr Martin-Sperry: ‘It is at best speculative whether the report will happen or not.’
The judge told Smith, who used to deal in car engines before his injuries: ‘When this initially started, it was an ill-judged attempt to assist your wife.’