Policeman faces jail after torching his car for insurance money
The Scotsman / 18th February 2006
A POLICEMAN is facing an "almost inevitable" jail sentence after a sheriff ruled he had faked the theft of his car, torched it for the insurance money and lied about it in court.

After a five day-trial, PC Alan Gavin, 42, was found guilty of defrauding the company that insured his £4,000 Nissan and of wasting police time by making a false report of a crime.

The former detective in the elite Scottish Crime Squad faces certain dismissal from Central Scotland Police.

In addition, he, his brother Hugh, 40, who is also a Central Scotland policeman, and their father, Hugh snr, 67, were accused by Sheriff Craig Caldwell of colluding and perjuring themselves in their evidence to the court, and could now face further proceedings.

Falkirk Sheriff Court heard that Gavin's two-litre Nissan Primera GT blew a cylinder head on the M9 on the way back from a trip to Edinburgh. After taking it to a garage, which removed the cylinder head for inspection, he found he couldn't afford the repair bill.

Gavin arranged for Hugh jnr to tow it from his home in Maddiston, near Falkirk, to a lonely spot near Armadale used by joyriders for dumping trashed cars. There, he doused it with an accelerant, probably petrol, and set it on fire, burning his hand and scorching his eyebrows in the resulting flashback. After hospital treatment, he went to Linlithgow police station and reported that the car had been stolen from a lochside car park while they were in a local pub.

He claimed £4,225 from Allianz Cornhill, which paid out in full, less a £100 excess.

The incident, in January 2000, would never have come to light but for a bitter row with his estranged wife, Karen, who told police about the scam - and made allegations of domestic abuse - during their acrimonious divorce.

She said that, when they realised they could not afford to repair the car, "discussions had come round" to getting rid of it as if it was stolen. She claimed Gavin had selected the spot to dump it using his knowledge as a local police officer.

Gavin claimed his former wife had set out to destroy him, making up "blatant lies" out of spite. He said she had "always hated" the Nissan Primera, because he'd spent thousands of pounds buying it at a time during their marriage when he was living with another woman.

He claimed he had repaired the car himself after it was returned by the garage, and had driven it to Linlithgow.

His brother supported his story, and his father backed his tale that he had got his burns not torching the Primera, but while mending an exhaust.

But an insurance company assessor who inspected the car found its engine was in exactly the state it had been left in by the garage - in pieces, with the cylinder head missing. The mileage tallied with it having been towed to where it was found dumped. There were no signs of forced entry, no damage to the ignition barrel and no signs it had been hot-wired.

Sheriff Caldwell said Alan Gavin had been "vague and dissembling" in his evidence, his brother had been "unreliable, inconsistent and given to unnecessary embellishment" and his father had been "clearly lying".

He went on: "With some hesitation and regret I have reached the conclusion that the Gavins colluded in concocting a false account and ... have perjured themselves. That is a matter which I will have to consider in due course."

He deferred sentence on Alan Gavin for reports, but warned him that a prison term was almost inevitable.