AN INSURANCE con "hatched by the roadside" after a crash backfired after two of the trio involved ended up in court.

Burnley Crown Court heard how John Morris, 56, was not insured for the car belonging to Jane Lord, 37, which he had been driving.

He asked the woman who had been driving the other vehicle involved in the accident to say Lord had been at the wheel for insurance purposes.

The bubble burst when the woman kept referring to the other driver as a "he", got cold feet and spilled the beans.

Lord, a mother of six, then fresh out of a psychiatric ward and not fit to drive, and her co-defendant both escaped jail after the court heard the other driver had been cautioned for her part in the "plot."

Sentencing the couple, Judge Raymond Bennett said what they did was wrong and on the spur of the moment.

He could not overlook the fact the other driver made a false statement to police and, when she owned up, was not prosecuted.

He added the other driver had eventually done the right thing and he supposed that was why she was merely cautioned.

The judge said he was quite satisfied that Lord, who had been under a lot of stress, was not her normal self at the time.

Lord, of Talbot Street, Harle Syke, and Morris, of Altham Street, Padiham, had both admitted conspiracy to defraud.

Lord was given a 12 months conditional discharge and Morris received 50 hours community punishment. Both were of good character.

John Oultman, prosecuting, said after the collision last October, the two parties exchanged details and Morris suggested the other driver say Lord was the driver for insurance purposes.

Morris was not insured to drive the vehicle he was in.