A MAN who crashed his car and rang police to claim it had been stolen has been jailed after repeatedly telling a "pack of lies".

Even when Jordan Stallard was confronted with CCTV pictures of the collision and him abandoning the vehicle a few streets away, he denied it was him.

And his efforts to dupe police came to nothing when a friend he claimed he had been with refused to lie for him.

At Bolton Crown Court 25-year-old Stallard was jailed for seven months after finally pleading guilty to perverting the course of justice.

Judge Graeme Smith told him: "It was only here that you finally accepted that what you had done was tell a pack of lies.

"You involved the police in a considerable amount of work in investigating the matter and the fictitious car theft and you put one of your friend on the line by offering him as an alibi and asking him to give false evidence on your behalf and potentially exposing him to the risk of exactly the same charge you have pleaded guilty to.

"He took the right view that it was not right, even for a friend, to lie and say something which was self-evidently false."

The court heard how, at 12.40pm on February 22 last year, Stallard was driving a VW Beetle which ran into the back of an Audi A3 being driven by Michelle Rogers, who was turning right from Nel Pan Lane onto Burns Avenue, Leigh.

"Her vehicle was hit sufficiently hard for it to spin round before it came to a halt," said Jonathan Savage, prosecuting, who added that Stallard did not stop, choosing instead to drive off, abandoning his car a short distance away in Westwell Street.

"It wasn't difficult for Miss Rogers to identify the vehicle which had hit her because the front number plate of the defendant's vehicle was left at the scene," said Mr Savage.

Stallard contacted police to say his car had been stolen and he was aware it had been in a crash.

The father-of-one also told his insurers that he had driven to the pub the night before the collision but had left the car there and been picked up by a friend.

"He said he hadn't realised the vehicle was stolen until the went to collect it the following morning and realised his keys were missing," said Mr Savage.

But his story began to unravel when PCSOs uncovered CCTV of the crash scene and at Westwell Street.

"They recognised him from the footage they had seen," said Mr Savage.

When interviewed by police Stallard, of Eastwood Grove, Leigh, still maintained his car had been stolen and then claimed he had been at his friend, Tom Wright's home all weekend.

But when Mr Wright was contacted he refuted Stallard's story and told officers that his friend had asked him to lie.

Paul Treble, defending, described Stallard, who is of previous good character, as "relatively immature" and said he deeply regrets his behaviour.

"He has poor thinking skills and clearly didn't think things through," said Mr Treble

"He accepts he was the driver and panicked. Talking to a friend he decided to concoct this rather ridiculous story."

Jailing him, Judge Smith told Stallard: "You tried to deceive everybody involved - the insurance company, the police and, indirectly, the victim of the accident.

"Your precise reasons for doing that are unclear because the car was insured at the time."