A Police Community Support Officer, who perverted the course of justice by lying about crashing her car after drinking at least two glasses of wine mixed with anti-depressants, has been jailed for eight weeks.
Single-mum Lauren Dighton-Andrews, 24, collided with a parked Marcedes van at 4.50am, but fled the scene and later told police her car had been taken and driven without her knowledge.
"For five years you were a PCSO and stood as a person in a position of trust and responsibility," Recorder Laurie West-Knights QC told her. "You of all people should not have even thought of the commission of an offence of this kind.
"You accept you had two glasses of wine and your counsel says on top of that you had medication that caused you to panic."
Dighton-Andrews, of Sidmouth Road, Welling pleaded guilty at Woolwich Crown Court to perverting the course of justice on July 22, last year hours after crashing her white Seat Ibiza in Woolwich Road, Belvedere.
Prosecutor Mr. Peter Gray told the court: "It was a fairly serious accident in the sense of damage to the vehicles and the Mercedes Sprinter sustained quite a heavy amount of damage.
"The impact caused a wheel to collapse and there was also heavy damage to the Seat, which lost its front bumper and the airbag was deployed."
Officers quickly discovered the absent Dighton-Andrews, who patrolled Camberwell, Southwark, was the owner of the vehicle and nine hours later she turned up at Bexleyheath Police Station, insisting she was not driving it.
"The defendant told the police she had left the vehicle locked on her driveway at 4pm and a friend and two unnamed males remained in her house," explained Mr. Gray. "She said she had a confrontation with one of them and left the house and car keys on the kitchen table."
Dighton-Andrews left the car keys in the ignition and police matched her DNA to the airbag.
A friend, Laura Barker, told police she and the defendant had gone out for the night with two men, indicating Dighton-Andrews had more than two glasses of wine, and she later heard her driving away from the house.
"There were also texts on Miss Barker's phone from the defendant saying she had crashed her car."
A reference on behalf of the defendant read: "She always loved her job as a PCSO…She was an active PCSO."
Her lawyer Mr. Pieter Briegel said: "She had two glasses of wine that night and that was in combination with medication. That is always unwise."
Dighton-Andrews had been prescribed anti-depressants after splitting with her boyfriend, who also worked for the police, claiming he was abusive.
She fled the house because of the unwanted attention from one of the men, said Mr. Briegel. "It was a hand on the knee from a frisky male who had been drinking.
"She did not want to lose consciousness while with a man giving her unwanted attention.
"She knew she had some alcohol and damage that was sufficient to deploy an airbag is pretty significant.
"It is to her regret that she did not act differently and when the police became involved it was embedded and she could not face up to the situation."
Dighton-Andrews is also £30,000 in debt and her house is up for sale.
"If she had got away with it the owner of the Mercedes would have been facing damage from an untraced driver," announced Recorder West-Knight. "On top of that she was fingering one of the males in the house.
"From the outset you gave a wholly false account," he told the first-time offender. "This is a very serious criminal offence and except for exceptional circumstances an immediate custodial sentence must follow.
"An offence of this kind by a person in your position does not come under exceptional circumstances."
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