A TRAVELLER has been jailed for three years for providing a false alibi to a killer.

Reynolds Thomas Tunney, a 45-year-old gardener, of the James Street Caravan Site in York, admitted providing Ashley Squires with a fake alibi after he mowed down and killed Warwickshire farmer Michael Boffey.

A 17-year-old youth pleaded guilty in the same case to providing police with a false written statement. He received a two-year conditional discharge, on the understanding he had been influenced by Tunney.

Car thief Squires, 22, pleaded guilty to manslaughter, after he ran over the 61-year-old farmer in August last year, when Mr Boffey was trying to stop Squires stealing his Land Rover from his farm near Rugby, in Warwickshire.

Mr Boffey, a grandfather-of-five, was found lying in the road with serious head injuries. Despite the frantic efforts of family, neighbours and paramedics, he died at the scene.

Squires was jailed for 12 years at Birmingham Crown Court in January.

York Crown Court heard yesterday that Tunney used to employ Squires in his York-based gardening business, Tree Care.

Thomas Storey, prosecuting, told the court that Squires, originally from Leicester, killed Mr Boffey on August 20 last year, and gave Tunney's phone number to police for an alibi.

Warwickshire Police spoke to Tunney, who said he was prepared to give a statement.

On September 9, Tunney told officers at Fulford Road Police Station in York that Squires had been doing gardening work for him in York on August 20, a statement supported by one given by the 17-year-old youth.

Mr Storey said subsequent police investigations showed that, while Tunney's firm was carrying out gardening at homes in Acomb on that day, none of the homeowners remembered Squires.

The pair went on to change their statements on October 2, to say they only saw Squires in the afternoon of August 20 at about 1pm. Squires had committed the crime in Warwickshire at about 8.30am.

Tunney pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice.

The Honorary Recorder for York, Judge Paul Hoffman, told him: "It's a very serious offence to provide a false alibi for a defendant in a criminal case and particularly when, as in this case, the putting up of that alibi is persistent."

David Bradshaw, for Tunney, said the father-of-seven did not class himself as a traveller because he had lived in the same area for several years. "This was a spur of the moment decision made because of misguided loyalty to Squires, who he didn't think was capable of anything like that," said Mr Bradshaw.

Simon Kealey, defending the youth, said: "He has learning difficulties in that he can't read or write, and wasn't entirely clear what was supposed to have happened in August."

A spokeswoman for Warwick-shire Police said: "This (the case) should be a reminder to criminals who seek to prey on rural communities that they will be arrested and brought to justice."

Updated: 09:37 Wednesday, April 05, 2006