Couple concocted 'elaborate story' to avoid breath test

Andrew John Cockburn, aged 41, a serving PC based in Rotherham at the time of the incident in May 2006, drove Jayne Swanson away from the collision on an M1 slip road.

He didn’t wait for police to question and breathalyse Swanson who witnesses said “appeared drunk”.

The dad of two, of Manor Row, Wales, was told about his wife’s accident by an off duty military police officer who found Swanson wandering around the slip road with no shoes on following the collision in the early hours of May 11.

He telephoned Cockburn who came to pick her up - leaving the couple’s two children, aged 10 and 12 - alone at home.

When he arrived he insisted on taking her to hospital despite being told by passing traffic officers that the police and ambulance service were on their way.

Magistrates in Wakefield had convicted him of obstructing a police officer in the execution of his duty and Swanson, also 41, was convicted of drink driving but they appealed against their convictions and a two day hearing was held at Leeds Crown Court.

Cockburn, a PC who had also worked as a DC, was suspended on full pay minus overtime while awaiting the outcome of the appeal - picking up 1,700 per month.

Swanson, a self employed graphic designer, was banned from driving for 12 months but this was also suspended pending the outcome of the appeal.

Yesterday each of them gave evidence at the hearing but the judge refused to believe their “lies”.

Swanson, of Manvers Road, Swallownest, who was living with Cockburn at the time of the incident although their 15 year relationship had just ended, admitted drinking two or three “half full” glasses of complimentary wine in Leeds before driving back to Sheffield just after midnight on May 11.

Dismissing the appeal Judge Kerry Macgill said Swanson’s story about being hit by something was “implausible in the extreme” and said the pair had “concocted an elaborate” story so that Swanson could go to her sister’s house where police would not find her.

The judge said the original sentences - a 300 fine for Cockburn and a 500 fine for Swanson alongside the 12 month driving ban - should remain and ordered that each of them pay an extra 500 court costs on top of the 400 court costs they had already been ordered to pay by magistrates.

A South Yorkshire Police spokeswoman said: "PC Cockburn will remain suspended while further disciplinary action is considered."