A HALBEATH man has been jailed for a “web of deceit” in which he pretended his car had been stolen after he was involved in a crash.

Mostafizur Rahman’s vehicle was discovered after coming off an embankment in Dundee and he later contacted police to say it had been stolen.

However, when police officers came to his Fod Street home, they became suspicious when he asked if he would get any money if it was found. 

Depute fiscal Dev Kapadia said his former partner had originally said the car had been there the previous day, however, when questioned later, she admitted it hadn’t been there for several days as Rahman had driven it to his work in Aberdeen.

He later contacted her saying he had lost his job and had had an accident in the car.

The police officers saw text messages from Rahman in which he told a witness to “find any key and show it to the police”.

Appearing for sentencing at Dunfermline Sheriff Court yesterday (Wednesday), Rahman, 40, had previously admitted that on April 14, at Fod Street, he falsely represented to two police officers that his car had been stolen when in fact he’d had an accident on the B974 road in Dundee.

He also, on the same date, failed to give information as to the identity of the driver when required to do so by a police officer after his car had been involved in a contravention of the Road Traffic Act.

Defence solicitor Sarah Meehan said her client accepted the offences were very serious. “His only explanation for his conduct is he panicked following the collision he was involved in,” she said.

“The only thing going through his mind was fear he would lose his licence and in the heat of the moment, his clouded judgement thought the best way to deal with it would be to report his car as stolen.

He appreciates this was an extremely foolish thing to do and it was not the correct way to deal with it.”

Sheriff James MacDonald said he had given “careful and anxious consideration” and did not think there was an alternative to a custodial sentence.

“You stumbled upon a web of deceit in which you chose not to involve just yourself but also to involve others," he said.

He jailed Rahman for four months and added six penalty points to his licence.