A MAN has been jailed after he falsely claimed to have sold his car in Halesowen to avoid a speeding charge.

Father-of-one Gary Green, aged 51, first maintained he had sold his Audi A4 to a garage in Halesowen after being sent a notice of intended prosecution.

But the car dealership he reported had a Whitehall Road address which did not exist and police quickly became suspicious, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

Investigating officers then spotted a likeness between Green's photograph on his driving licence and the man behind the wheel of the Audi caught on camera as the vehicle was caught speeding in the Black Country.

Green continued to tell lies, said Fiona Cortese, prosecuting, and he then told police the car had been sold to him by a man in a pub who claimed to work for the non-existent dealership.

The delivery driver then claimed he was involved in car sales himself and he produced a receipt as proof of the sale of the Audi but further checks by police revealed that was not the case.

Then finally, said Miss Cortese, he produced a number of character references to a court claiming he was honest when he had a number of previous convictions for offences including handling stolen goods.

As he jailed Green for six months, Judge Simon Ward told Green he was deeply troubled by the references adding: "It was a gross error of judgement to make these available to the court.

"There were indicators that when in a corner you lie. This kind of behaviour undermines the criminal justice system and it put the investigative authority to a great deal of trouble following your false lines of inquiry when they could haver been doing much more important work."

Green, of Abbey Close, Bromsgrove, admitted attempting to pervert the course of justice, his barrister, Richard Hull, described his actions as an "aberration."

He told the court that Green who is separated from the mother of his child had been trapped in a web of deceit and he had then found it difficult to backtrack on his story.