[LAF] Fwd: [NMPMembers] Woman sent to Styal for 'white lie'......bet Blair's glad he never lied

Tue Aug 5 11:05:12 UTC 2008

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1040137/Grandmother-follows-daughter-jail-telling-white-lie-court-bid-bail-her.html

   Grandmother follows daughter to jail after telling 'white lie' in
   court in bid to bail her

By Daily Mail Reporter
<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Daily+Mail+Reporter>
Last updated at 12:36 PM on 31st July 2008

A devoted grandmother who told a ‘white lie’ in court in a bid to get
her wayward daughter out of prison has been sent to jail herself.
Housewife Kim Farnell, 51, offered to stand bail for daughter Kelly, 31,
by claiming she had £1,000 in her bank account - when she less than £100.
She quickly confessed when she was asked for proof of her finances - but
was promptly arrested and hauled into the dock herself.
Bolton Crown Court
Rapped: Kim Farnell was put in the dock at Bolton Crown Court, above,
after claiming she had £1,000 in her account - enough to stand bail for
daughter Kelly
It emerged Kim had come up with the lie so Kelly - who had been arrested
for burglary - would not be separated from her newborn daughter Millie.
Today a row broke out after Kim was ordered to serve 30 days jail for
perjury. Her daughter who was kept in custody later walked free with a
two year supervision order at a separate hearing after being convicted
of burglary.
Passing sentence on Kim, Judge William Morris said lying in court was a
serious matter and a message had to be sent out that it would not be
tolerated.
‘You clearly feared for your daughter and I accept you panicked,’ said
the judge at Bolton Crown Court.
‘But anyone who seeks to mislead a court on oath can expect to receive a
custodial sentence.
‘That must be the clear message which comes from this court.’ Kim who
has six grandchildren is now residing in the tough Styal women’s prison
near Manchester alongside killers and drug dealers.
Her younger daughter Tina, 27 said: ‘I just can’t believe that mum has
been jailed - its absolutely ridiculous.
‘This was hardly crime of the century. There are drug dealers knife
thugs and paedophiles walking free from court yet my mum gets a spell in
jail for telling a white lie in court.
‘Mum did this out of desperation because Kelly had just given birth to a
daughter Millie three weeks earlier and she did not want them to be
separated.
'She liv es for her family and she was hoping the baby would help Kelly
turn her life around.
‘She was just trying to be a good grandmother. Mum knows she did
something wrong but it was more misguided than malicious and certainly
not deserving of jail.
‘Whatever Kelly had done mum wanted to stand by her and help her look
after the baby.
'She genuinely believed she would get the money to stand Kelly’s bail.
Mum suffers with depression so this prsion term won’t be good for her
health at all.
‘We haven’t even been able to speak to her yet. It’s terrible when you
think there are villains out there getting off scotfree for far more
serious crimes.’
The court heard how the incident occurred in May when Farnell went to
court in support of Kelly when she came up for a bail hearing .
Another judge had offered to grant Kelly bail on condition of a surety
of £1,000.
But Kim, of Arthur Millwood Court, Salford, then went into the witness
box and swore under oath that she was good for the money.
When the judge asked for proof that she had the funds, Farnell returned
to the court with a bank mini-statement which showed the had less than
£100 in her account.
At court on Tuesday she pleaded guilty to perjury and was looked visibly
shocked as sentence was passed. Judge Morris passed a non custod ial
sentence on Kelly at an earlier hearing.
Tina of Harphurhey, Manchester said: ‘Mum was mortified when she was
arrested in the first place. She just didn’t think what she was doing
was so serious.
‘It was her idea to say she was good for the money but all she was doing
was looking out for her daughter and grand-daughter.
‘When she told us she had been charged with perjury she said she did not
hold any grudge towards Kelly for being arrested herself.
‘She just thought it would blow over and she was told by her lawyers the
chances were she would get a tag or a comunity sentence. Then this week
she went to court and didn’t come home.
‘At first I thought people were joking around when they said mum had
gone to prison. Her partner called me as soon as he heard - he couldn’t
believe it either.
‘All her life she’s worked as a housewife making a home for us kids and
then being a good granny to our kids- it’s just not fair.’
Kim’s son Freddie Wallbank, 23, said: ‘Mum went to court with Kelly
about two months ago now and she thought she had the bail money for her.
‘They told her to get a statement to prove it and then she admitted that
she didn’t have it.
‘Then the officer told her she was under arrest for perjury. We couldn’t
believe it but her solicitor told us she would probably just get a tag.
‘Mum will be a bag of nerves in jail. She shouldn’t be inside at her age.
'Surely there could have been a more sensible way of dealing with her
when you think of all those lags messing about on community service.’
In court Kim’s counsel Patrick Ryan said she was concerned about her
daughter being kept in jail andsaw Judge Everett’s offer of bail as ‘a
ray of light at the end of the tunnel’ and had not thought about the
consequences before taking to the witness box.
He said: ‘At the time her daughter had a three week old baby to look
after. She is now throwing herself on the court's mercy.’
Judge Morris, 61, a father of two was appointed Recorder of Bolton Crown
Court - the town’s most senior judge - in March this year having sat at
the court for nine years.
He was educated at Ampleforth public school in North Yorkshire and is
the son of the late judge Sir William Morris who was The Recorder of
Liverpool from 1966 to 1967 and The Recorder of Manchester from 1971
until 1977.
He went to Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge in 1965 and obtained
a degree in Law and Fine Arts before being called to the bar in 1970 and
being made a full-time circuit judge in 1995.
He counts fishing, gardening an d walking among his hobbies.
In a recent interview the judge said it was his role to apply the
‘proper standards and impose the proper sentence’ adding: ‘With the
passing years you gain experience and you always hope a little bit of
wisdom.
‘There are obviously days when it is more difficult than others, there
are particularly demanding cases and such cases are not always easy but
that is the nature of the job. It’s sometimes a tough job and you make
tough decisions.’
He said it was good to remember the ‘personal aspect’ of crime and the
person it has affected.
But the judge has come under fire during his career for some of his
sentencing decisions.
Earlier this year he freed 84-year old George Greenhalgh who made up
£850,000 selling fake ‘antiques’ made by his son in a shed because the
old man’s age and ill-health meant the prison service could not look
after him humanely.
Then in January paedophile Andrew Brown, 42, walked free with a
three-year community order for keeping indecent images of girls as young
as nine on his mobile phone - despite having a lengthy record for sex
offences.
In May 2006, speeding hit and run driver Mouishen Ahmed, then 18, was
given 15 and a half months for killing who killing a nine-yearold girl
after the judge said his behaviour came "low on the scale of criminal
culpability".
=0 A
Then in March 2003, factory worker Christopher Allen, then 38 was given
100 hours community punishment and 12 months probation after lacing the
drinks of three colleagues with rat poison pellets.
In March 2002 the judge caused further outrage when he allowed a girl
gang who beat up teenager Leah Crompton, then 14 ‘because she was
pretty’ to walk free from court with community orders.
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