A man who lied to police about being the driver when a woman's car overturned was warned to expect a jail sentence.

Brandon Gorgen, 38, took the rap when Lucy Mellis, 41, crashed her car in late 2020 – injuring a child inside the vehicle.

Prosecutor Peter Pride told Oxford Crown Court that Mellis initially said she was the driver. “Mr Gorgen effectively took over and said he was driving and Ms Mellis seems to have been sucked or drawn along with that.”

Gorgen later admitted to the police what he’d done.

Appearing before the crown court on Tuesday afternoon on the day of their trial, Gorgen, of Harrier Way, Bicester, pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice. Mellis, of Wellington Avenue, Banbury, admitted child neglect

Judge Nigel Daly warned Gorgen: “Doing an act tending and intending to pervert the course of public justice normally involves an immediate custodial sentence.

“But, naturally, I will see what is contained in the pre-sentence report and I will bear in mind of course the guidelines with regard to the suspension of custodial sentences.”

Gorgen and Mellis were bailed to return to court on February 24 for sentence.

The maximum sentence for perverting justice is life imprisonment. Until last year, when an Oxford judge gave a spurned lover life for making up criminal allegations against her former partner, the life sentence had never been imposed.