A driver from Essex was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay costs of £4,500 for perverting the course of justice after going to extreme lengths to avoid a speeding offence.

Teresa Ward (61), was also given a four-month suspended jail sentence and must do 160 hours of unpaid work after lying about who was driving her car when it triggered a speed camera at 38mph in a 30mph zone in Essex in February 2014.

Ward, who was found guilty by a jury at Chelmsford Crown Court on June 23, was told she must pay the £10,000 fine by July 27 or she will be jailed for six months.

The court heard that on February 13, 2016 a Mercedes, registered to the defendant, of Boreham, Essex, activated the speed camera on the A414 Maldon Road, Danbury.

A Notice of Intended Prosecution was sent to Ward requesting details of the driver. A response was received from her providing details of the driver as being her ex-partner of Vaulty Manor, Goldhanger Road, Maldon, Essex. (They split up in 2009/2010). A Notice was sent to her ex-partner at the Vaulty Manor address and a response was received stating ‘I was the driver.’ In view of the response a Conditional Offer was sent offering a National Driver Retraining Course which would have avoided prosecution or points. The alternative was pay a fine and receive three points. No response was received. An investigation began and police enquiries revealed the ex-partner, nominated by Teresa Ward, was in fact living in France. He was contacted and stated he was not in the UK at that time and was not the driver of the vehicle. Ward was subsequently interviewed by police, during which she claimed that she had received a telephone call from her ex-partner on the day of the speeding offence, alleging he said he would take the car. She claimed the keys to the car were kept in the exhaust pipe for anyone to use.