A WOMAN who faked her own death in a bid to escape a driving conviction has been jailed for eight months.
Zoe Bernard, 38, was already banned from the roads after she was arrested for driving her BMW carelessly and failing to stop in Kilburn in November 2020.
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But when police tried to follow up on the driving incident, she posed as her sister Shanice and said that Zoe had passed away, Southwark Crown Court heard today.
The 38-year-old even went to the lengths of applying for death certificate as she repeatedly lied to the authorities between December 15, 2020 and January 27, 2021.
Bernard had initially denied perverting the course of justice but later admitted the offence.
Speaking on Wednesday Judge Martin Beddoe said Bernard had tried to “deceive the police” by faking her own death.
“This offence was clearly the result of some degree of thought and planning by you,” he told the court.
“I am quite satisfied this was an effort on your part to deceive the police. You already had a very bad record for driving matters and you knew full well the trouble you were in.
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“You set out to pervert the course of justice. You attempted to convince the police you were dying and had died. To reinforce that lie you tried to get hold of a death certificate.”
The court heard that Bernard had previous convictions and had been jailed in October 2019 for drink-driving and driving while disqualified.
She received a six-month curfew and a 12-month ban.
However, when she stopped by Police in November 2020, she gave her name as Kyesha Bernard, and later Shanice as she claimed Zoe had been ill and then died.
She applied for a certificate, but it was not issued because there had been no registered death of a Zoe Bernard.
DEAD GIVEAWAY
Barrister Margo Munro Kerr also told the court Ms Bernard had physical and mental health problems and had lost both her uncle and her daughter in the Grenfell fire.
She added that Zoe has been felling suicidal and had attempted to forge the death certificate as a means of “preparation.”
“These are the actions of a very unwell person in a way that is going to harm herself more than anyone else,” she said.
“This is such a strange way to act. It was so obvious the police would find out this was a lie. It was not rational.”
However, Judge Beddoe said: “This offence was clearly the result of some degree of thought and planning by you.
“I am quite satisfied this was an effort on your part to deceive the police.
“You already had a very bad record for driving matters and you knew full well the trouble you were in. You set out to pervert the course of justice.”
Sentencing Bernard he added: “You are someone that has very little respect for the operation for the law. I do not accept that this was as a result of any suicidal tendencies. This offence was clearly the result of some degree of planning by you.
“From what I have read it is clear that you exaggerate events in your life in order to suit your interests.
“Neither the psychiatric report nor the letter shown to me today has convinced me that justice should not take its proper course.
“You have disregard for the law and you need to learn to do so.”
