ABSTRACT
Crown Court at Leeds before Judge Hurwitz and a jury, the appellant was convicted by a majority verdict of 10 to 2 of obtaining property by deception. She faced a further similar count, the trial of which was adjourned. No sentence has yet been passed. She appeals against conviction by leave of the single judge. The facts which gave rise to the charge were these. In September 1981 the appellant claimed some £5,665 from her insurers in respect of what she claimed was a burglary at her flat in Leeds. The insurance company in July 1982 paid her £5,212 in settlement of the claim. Many months later a man called Turnpenny, an acknowledged criminal, gave the police a mass of information about the activities of other criminals, which resulted in a large number of people being arrested, among them being the appellant. Turnpenny gave evidence that the appellant had told him that her ‘burglary’ was bogus; that a man named Maddon had committed it; that she knew the whereabouts of the stolen property. She gave him to understand that the idea of the bogus burglary had been initiated by one Drewery with whom the appellant had been living and with whom she was infatuated. Turnpenny conceded that he had good reason for wishing to harm Drewery. As a result of this information the appellant was arrested in the early hours of Friday 12 July 1985. Drewery was arrested at the same time. She was interviewed twice on that day, but exercised her right to say nothing despite persistent questioning by the police. She was interviewed again on the following day, Saturday. The interview was split into two, with a break in between, according to the police of 50 minutes, according to her of about 5 or 10 minutes. The police witnesses describe how, after initially refusing to answer questions, her attitude started to change. One of the officers, Detective Sergeant Beech, said: ‘You’ve obviously got a lot on your mind, are you finding it difficult?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Would I be right in saying that you want to talk about this but every bone in your body is telling you you shouldn’t?’ ‘Something like that’, was the reply. Then came the break already described.
