Claire Reid
A woman who faked her own death in an attempt to dodge a driving conviction has been jailed.
Zoe Bernard had already been banned from driving when she was arrested for careless driving and failing to stop in November 2020.
But when police attempted to contact Bernard over the incident, she pretended to be her sister Shanice and told officers that Zoe was ill and later said she had died.
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Bernard even applied for her own death certificate, keeping up the lie between 15 December 2020 and 27 January 2021, Southwark Crown Court heard.
The 38-year-old initially denied perverting the course of justice but later admitted to the crime.
Appearing in court today, Bernard was sentenced to eight months in prison.
Judge Martin Beddoe said: “This offence was clearly the result of some degree of thought and planning by you.
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“I am quite satisfied this was an effort on your part to deceive the police. You already had a very bad record for driving matters and you knew full well the trouble you were in.
“You set out to pervert the course of justice. You attempted to convince the police you were dying and had died. To reinforce that lie you tried to get hold of a death certificate.”
The court heard that prior to her most recent run-in with the police, she had been jailed in 2019 for drink driving and driving while disqualified - she was also given a 12 month ban and a six month curfew.
When she was pulled over by cops in 2020, she said her name was Kyesha Bernard and then later said she was Shanice and Zoe had died.
Her attempt to obtain a death certificate was unsuccessful due to the fact that she wasn’t dead.
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Defending, barrister Margo Munro Kerr, told the judge her client had physical and mental health problems and that the attempt to get the death certificate was ‘preparation’ for suicide.
However, Judge Beddoe dismissed this claim - during sentencing he said: “You are someone that has very little respect for the operation for the law. I do not accept that this was as a result of any suicidal tendencies. This offence was clearly the result of some degree of planning by you.
“From what I have read it is clear that you exaggerate events in your life in order to suit your interests.
“Neither the psychiatric report nor the letter shown to me today has convinced me that justice should not take its proper course.
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"You have disregard for the law and you need to learn to do so.”