A former Miss Liverpool tried to claim a thief was behind the wheel of her Mercedes when it crashed into traffic lights causing thousands of pounds worth of damage, a court has heard.
She punched the air after she walked free from court today (July 12). Victoria McInerney, 38, crashed her Mercedes in the Wirral around 4am on January 21 this year telling a taxi driver afterwards: "My boyfriend is going to kill me. Look what I've done to the car."
The LiverpoolECHO reports that the sales director and pilates studio owner fled the scene of the crash before police and paramedics arrived. Later on that morning she called police to claim the company car had been taken during a burglary.
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The "award-winning dancer", who also competed for the title of Miss England as a teenager in 2003, told officers she had stayed at her then boyfriend's nearby home and left the vehicle parked outside. She said she went to sleep around 11pm that night and the car had gone when she had woken up.
However, CCTV evidence of the incident, which was played to Liverpool Crown Court, showed McInerney exiting the driver's side door after the crash. Police returned to the address later the same day where she confessed the story was a lie.
She said she was trying to drive to a nearby garage to buy cigarettes when she 'lost control'. McInerney then 'panicked' as she "didn't want to lose her job".
Michael Scholes, defending, told the court that his client acts as a carer for several family members and has a history of physical and mental health problems. He also described her as a "hard-working, responsible and well thought-of young woman".
Mr Scholes added: "There was a significant degree of brain fog. The extremely bad decision taken is so out of character that it suggests there must have been other factors beyond simply wanting to avoid responsibility.
"She is just the last person you would expect to see before the courts for this type of offence. Sometimes people make mistakes, and some mistakes have more serious consequences than others."
McInerney - who has no previous convictions - admitted perverting the course of justice and failing to stop after an accident and was handed a 12-month community order with 80 hours of unpaid work and a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 10 days. She was handed seven penalty points, but was allowed to remain on the roads after pleading "significant hardship" due to the impact any disqualification would have on her work.
Sentencing, Judge Louise Brandon said: "You deliberately provided false information to the police, and you did so in circumstances where you must have mulled it over before you did it. You caused valuable resources to be wasted when they could have been used elsewhere.
"You deeply regret what you did. In panic, you didn't think through the consequences of your actions. You have had time to reflect and taken responsibility. I accept there were other factors in play, and that it was not all about wanting to avoid responsibility. Offences of this nature undermine the very nature of the criminal justice system.
McInerney was also told to pay £2,055 in compensation to Wirral Council, £500 in court costs and a £95 victim surcharge.
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