News / Yorkshire man admits giving false name to police
A MAN from West Yorkshire who obtained a hotel room with no intention of paying for it before giving a false name to police after being caught driving while disqualified has been remanded in custody.
Martin Maughan, of Bowling Back Lane, Bradford, pleaded guilty to obtaining a room worth £130 at Scalloway Hotel on Friday “without paying and intending not to pay thereafter” when he appeared at Lerwick Sheriff Court.
He also admitted driving a vehicle without insurance and while disqualified at Lerwick’s Westerloch Drive the same day.
Maughan and his partner, 23 year old Kathleen Boswell of the same Bradford address, pretended to police that his name was Philip Walton with the intention of perverting the course of justice.
Procurator fiscal Keith Adam said their room at Scalloway Hotel was found “in some disarray” with some damage inflicted, though that was a matter between the accused and the hotel.
Police stopped the vehicle Maughan was driving because it was marked “high maintenance”, at which point he pretended to be his uncle, under whose name the vehicle is registered.
Defence agent Tommy Allan admitted his client had a record for driving while disqualified.
After Maughan gave the false name to police, he said, Boswell “simply backed him up” – she was concerned about getting back to their four month-old baby – but their “ruse was found out quite quickly”.
In relation to the hotel, Allan said the couple’s intention had been to go back, but he accepted they had left without paying.
The couple had spent three days in custody and honorary sheriff Malcolm Bell agreed to grant bail to Boswell. But he decided to keep Maughan on remand until the pair appear for sentencing on 14 September due to a “serious chance” that he would reoffend.
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