A WOMAN framed a friend for her abusive boyfriend’s bad driving amid fears of being beaten up, a court heard.

Suzanne Scurr, 26, of The Moors, Kidlington, blamed her mechanic friend Michael White after police questioned her about a series of motoring misdemeanors traced back to her car.

Her “violent” boyfriend, Taffyn Betnay, had been driving the car despite being disqualified.

But instead of telling police the truth, Scurr made up a story that the car had been with the mechanic at the time.

Mr White, who had spent only two hours working on the car’s engine, was quizzed by police officers for the offences but vigorously denied driving it.

Defending Scurr, Carrie Storey said she had been forced to lie to police by Betnay to cover his tracks. The defence barrister said Scurr had plucked up the courage to change her plea to guilty because it was the first time Betnay had not been sat in the public gallery watching.

Mrs Storey said that he was currently serving time in prison for driving whilst disqualified and for breaching a suspended sentence.

The barrister told Judge Nicholas Wood, sitting at Reading Crown Court, that in the past Scurr had had a tooth knocked out, hair ripped from her scalp and bite marks on her nose, as a result of her violent relationship with Betnay.

She said Scurr, who has an eight-week-old baby, was so scared of him, she had to lie to police.

“He also kicked her in the underneath, which split her womb and she was bleeding from that,” she said.

The court heard how Betnay had committed a series of motoring offences while driving Scurr’s car in April this year, sparking an investigation by police.

Scurr admitted one count of perverting the course of justice between May 8 and May 12 this year.

She was handed a six-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, along with 50 hours’ community service.

Judge Wood told her she made a “wise move” pleading guilty rather than forcing a trial.

“It is that which allows me to suspend the prison sentence today. You haven’t compounded the lies you told in the witness statement further.”