A SUSPENDED jail sentence has been handed to a woman who lied to police to cover up her husband’s crime spree in north Cumbria.

Mum-of-two Roxanne Virginia Fenwick, 30, falsely claimed she had been with her husband for a Valentine’s Day restaurant meal and she forged a document suggesting he had legitimately bought a van which was actually stolen.

She admitted perverting the course of justice.

Prosecutor Brendan Burke told Carlisle Crown Court that the background to her crime was a spate of offending committed by her husband, John Thomas Fenwick, 29, who has been recalled to prison because of his behaviour.

He had earlier admitted stealing a Ford Transit van belonging to Cumbria Waste Management from a site at Rockcliffe, near Carlisle, which he did on February 14, 2022.

He also admitted a burglary at Kingstown and the theft of a £63,000 Mercedes S350 car, having committed those crimes on February 11 that same year.

Explaining Roxanne Fenwick’s involvement, Mr Burke said she tried to cover up his offending.

She did this in two ways, said the prosecutor: firstly she forged documents that appeared to show that the van her husband had stolen was bought legitimately; and secondly by providing him with an alibi for the day of the theft.

“He was busy engaging in criminality,” said Mr Burke.

“But she said she was travelling with him in convoy to Cumbria to sell a car; and that they have then travelled back [home] together and to salvage what was left of Valentine’s Day, they went for a meal to a restaurant in County Durham.”

She named the restaurant in question.

Police proved she was lying because the restaurant was closed at the time she claimed they were there; and because an analysis of her mobile phone showed that it – and therefore she – had been at home all evening.

That fiction had started life with John Thomas Fenwick but had been adopted by his wife, said Mr Burke. Her lies had forced the police to make investigations to disprove what she was saying and so interfered with the administration of justice.

Mark Styles, defending, said Roxanne Fenwick was unlikely to trouble the courts again and she was capable of rehabilitation.

“There’s been no suggestion that she was involved in any other criminality,” said the barrister.

“She has expressed remorse in a letter; and she’s moved away from County Durham, which as been the centre of her husband’s criminal activities.”

Recorder Peter Atherton said Fenwick’s behaviour showed a degree of sophistication, and had interfered with the administration of justice, wasting police time – something that could not be tolerated by the courts.

But noting the defendant’s remorse and previous good character, he said he could suspend the 28-week jail term he imposed for a year.

The defendant, who lives with her husband at Stacksteads Place, Maidstone, Kent, wept throughout the hearing.

Thomas Fenwick will be sentenced on February 9.