Scorned ambulance worker jailed for claiming former lover harassed her 200 times a day

Caroline Banks “laid a false trail of evidence" by using an unregistered sim card to ring her own phone, then contacted the police claiming she was being constantly harassed by the woman, Leeds Crown Court was told.

The vindictive mother-of-two gave five statements to police over a four-month period between August and December 2020 claiming the woman had also tried to run her off the road in her car and forced her way into her house, all of which were lies.

Banks, 32, even said she feared the woman was going to “kill her”.

Prosecutor, Michael Smith said the victim was arrested four times and spent a total of two days in custody due to the fictitious allegations.

The pair began a relationship in 2018 and moved in, but the following year the victim started a relationship with another woman.

On August 5, 2020, Banks contacted police to say the woman was making calls and threats to her “on a daily basis”.

The woman was arrested and provided an alibi, corroborated by her new partner.

Banks made another statement a month later with similar allegations and the woman was arrested again.

The lies became more elaborate in November when she claimed the woman had purposely driven up behind her on the Wakefield Eastern Relief Road and overtook close by causing her swerve into the kerb.

The victim was arrested again and spent the night in the cells.

However, the police began to grow suspicious when the ANPR cameras failed to pick up the woman’s car in that area.

They later found that the calls were being made from the same handset belonging to Banks, with her simply switching the sim cards.

Mr Smith said: “She used her own phone to call her own sim and lay a false trail of evidence to bolster her own allegations.”

On November 24 Banks told police she was being called up to 200 times a day and said: “I believe that one day she will kill me.”

The woman was arrested again, but Banks then claimed she received 50 calls from the woman despite her being locked up at the time.

Finally, Banks was arrested where she made one last allegation of the woman barging her way into her house and taking items.

Banks, of Abbey Close, East Ardsley, denied perverting the course of justice, but eventually changed her plea.

A victim impact statement was read out by Mr Smith for Banks’ victim and her partner saying it had “substantially affected them”.

The woman was suspended from her job due to the allegations and was forced to keep a diary of where she had been in case Banks made further claims.

Quoting her statement, Mr Smith said: “I can’t believe the lengths she went to.”

Mitigating for Banks, Michael Collins said: “Through me she extends her apologies.

"She has let many people down, firstly the victim who did nothing to deserve what happened to her.

"She (Banks) could not accept the relationship was over.”

The judge, Recorder Robert Ward jailed Banks for 30 weeks and handed her a five-year restraining order.