A VALET who tried to evade responsibility for a crash that pushed a car “a considerable distance” has been given a suspended prison sentence and a £747 bill.

Lee Andrew Stott, 38, drove off, abandoned his van some distance away, and then lied to police, said Andrew Finlay, prosecuting.

He claimed, wrongly, it had been stolen in a house burglary and put in an insurance claim.

But he didn’t get a payout, and DNA on its deployed airbag revealed that he had been at the wheel when the crash happened, said Mr Finlay.

Stott, of Main Street, Little Ouseburn, north of York, pleaded guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice.

“The suspicion is that you were in drink or under the influence of something and that is why you left the scene,” Judge Simon Hickey told him.

“But there is no evidence of that.”

He passed a four-month prison sentence suspended for 12 months and ordered Stott to pay £200 compensation to the car owner, £425 prosecution costs and a £122 statutory surcharge.

Neal Kutte, for Stott, didn’t give any mitigation after the judge said he would suspend the prison sentence.

Mr Finlay said the car was a Mini parked in Arkendale near Knaresborough.

The van crashed into it in the late afternoon of February 29 last year, badly damaging it.

“Not only was it damaged, it was moved a considerable distance across the grass verge,” said Mr Finlay.

Police found Stott’s van, which was also damaged, abandoned on the A59 some distance away.

At 3.50am the next morning, Stott rang police to tell them his house had been burgled and his van removed from his property the previous afternoon.

But police were immediately suspicious, forensically examined his van and found the DNA which indicated he had been driving when the airbag deployed.

The Mini driver had had to pay a £200 excess on her insurance.

Stott had submitted an insurance claim but didn’t respond to some of the company’s attempts to contact him and didn’t get any money from it.