Police pair face discipline for motor insurance scam

TWO police officers face disciplinary action from the Derbyshire force after they were convicted of an insurance scam.

Diane Reeves-Emery, 38, and Charlotte Eccles, 23, were yesterday found guilty of deception following a five-day trial at Stafford Crown Court.

A jury took less than 90 minutes to decide that they had tried to save themselves £250 by lying about who was driving to an insurance firm when their car crashed.

The court heard how the lesbian couple argued after PC Reeves-Emery confessed she had kissed a man "intimately".

As they rowed, Eccles ploughed the Renault Clio into a kerb, causing £6,000 of damage. Her excess on the insurance was £500 – but Reeves-Emery's was half that because of her age, so they lied about who had been at the wheel.

Last night, a Derbyshire Police spokesman said: "We can confirm that both officers are both currently suspended from duty.

"The force will reflect on the court's verdict and consider the need for disciplinary action."

The scam emerged two years later when the couple split and Reeves-Emery was accused of a 14-month hate campaign against Eccles, sending scores of abusive texts.

It was while PC Eccles, who has only been in the force a year, was being interviewed over the allegations that she broke down and confessed to the insurance scam.

The court heard the couple had met on New Year's Eve 2005 while Eccles, who was living with her long-term boyfriend, was working as a special constable in Swadlincote.

By the end of February Reeves-Emery had moved her lover into her home in Burton.

The court heard about their volatile relationship and of Reeves Emery's heavy drinking and reliance on anti-depressants.

Eccles claimed her lover would become abusive and aggressive.

The road smash took place on April 25, 2006, but after it Reeves-Emery promised that she would change her ways. The couple then married in a civil ceremony in August 2006, but split within a year.

The campaign of harassment allegedly began following the break-up and intensified after Eccles started a new relationship.

Reeves-Emery, of Alexandra Road, Winshill, and Eccles, of Blueberry Way, Woodville, were found guilty of obtaining a financial advantage by deception.

Recorder Daf Jones told Reeves-Emery: "You were undoubtedly the leading light behind this. You sought to brazen it out with a series of lies."

Reeves-Emery was also found guilty of a second deception charge after giving false information to a second insurance firm within days of the smash. The older police officer was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay £1,500 costs.

Eccles, not a serving policewoman at the time of the crime, was given a six-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £1,500 costs.