NRI woman constable faces jail

LONDON: An Indian-origin policewoman in Britain faces jail sentence after she was found guilty of claiming insurance by lying that she had been robbed of her mobile phones.

Davinder Gill, 30, was convicted by a jury of obtaining property by deception following three hours of deliberation.

Gill allegedly made four such false insurance over a three-year period. She had earlier this month pleaded guilty to charges of obtaining property by deception in 2005 and 2006, and another count of attempting to obtain property by deception in 2004.

Gill told the court that on two occasions her phone had been stolen but she made up a crime number beacuse she was too lazy to report it.

City court Judge David Elvin, while granting her bail on Friday, warned Gill that he was considering 'all options' and adjourned the sentencing for October nine.

He said, "As a police officer if these offences had been committed in the line of duty it would most probably be a custodial sentence."

In April last year, she told fellow officers she was robbed of her handbag on her way home and as a result received another phone. However, detectives found that the handbag was handed in to the lost property department at a pub in central London, where she had been drinking that evening.

On April 10, Gill provided a written statement saying the versions he had given was correct and said she honestly believed she was the victim of a robbery.

However, after the recovery of her handbag she accepted she must have been mistaken due to the effect of the alcohol she had consumed.