A man who tried to blame his wife for his own driving offences has been jailed.

William Faulkner, 36, of Makepeace Road, Northolt, appeared in court for sentencing on Thursday, September 7.

He previously pleaded guilty to going equipped for theft, fraudulently using a registration mark, driving without insurance, driving whilst disqualified and two counts of attempted theft.

Faulkner was also found guilty by trial of the following further offences; driving whilst disqualified, fraudulently using a registration mark, driving without insurance and two counts of using a vehicle with insufficient tyre tread.

Karl Scholz, prosecuting, told the court that the first set of offences took place in Lixwm, Flintshire, on July 19, 2022.

At around 5pm that day, police received reports that a van had been involved in an accident.

When officers arrived, they found that the vehicle was on its side in the road.

Faulkner insisted he was not driving the vehicle, despite being the only person at the scene.

Instead, he told police that it was his wife who had been driving and that she had 'ran off'.

It was later discovered that his wife had been at her home in London when the crash took place.

The court heard that the crash was believed to have happened as a result of the insufficient tyres on the vehicle.

Numerous tools were found in the vehicle, which was also discovered to have a false registration number and police concluded that Faulkner was intending to use it to 'steal'.

The vehicle was seized and destroyed by police.

The next batch of offending took place in Coventry on June 26 of this year.

At around 10.30pm that night, Faulkner was spotted attempting to steal from a van in the area.

Around 20 minutes later, he targeted another vehicle - this time cutting a hole in it - but again did not take any items.

When stopped by police, Faulkner's latest vehicle was found to include tools such as angle grinders and electric saws and drills.

The court heard that Faulkner had 46 prior court appearances for 109 offences, including theft and driving whilst disqualified.

Rosemary Proctor, defending, said that it was 'no coincidence' that Faulkner's offending had begun 'shortly after began to drink and use drugs at a young age'.

She added that he had 'entered adulthood traumatised and addicted' and was someone who 'does not want to live like that anymore'.

Ms Proctor concluded that the defendant was 'extremely motivated to change' particularly as he has been looking after his wife who is suffering from 'poor health'.

Sentencing Faulkner, Judge Timothy Petts said that he was 'not going to take a chance' on offering the defendant a suspended sentence due to him having 'no regard for the law'.

For the first set of offences, Faulkner received 12 months for the false registration charge, six months for the disqualified driving and no separate penalty for the other offences.

For the second lot, he received six months for the disqualified driving, four for driving with no insurance and eight months for the going equipped for theft charge, and four months for each of the attempted thefts, to run concurrently.

The overall sentence was one of 26 months, and Faulkner was disqualified from driving for a further period of two-and-a-half years.