AN ELECTRICIAN working for the NHS was jailed after he lied about crashing his work van into the back of a car while being drunk.

Dushimimana Cyuma was sentenced behind bars for eight months after he pleaded guilty to doing an act tending or intending to pervert the course of public justice.

Cyuma falsely reported to the police his Peugeot work van had been stolen after he had abandoned it after he drove into the back of a car in Headington Hill, Oxford on May 18 last year.

Oxford Crown Court heard how Cyuma, 35, was seen to be swaying after the collision and admitted he was drunk when asked by the driver involved before he abandoned his van and went to his home in Latimer Grange, Headington.

Sentencing yesterday, Judge Peter Ross said Cyuma lied and persisted in his lying despite the police seizing the van and tracking the vehicle to the defendant.

He added: “You provided a prepared statement in which you continued to deny being the driver.

“ Where people pervert the course of justice they have to recognise the court will impose deterrent sentences. You denied it and you persisted in your denials until you came before the court.”

Prosecutor Cathy Olliver told the court how Cyuma woke up the following morning from abandoning his van - which has been seized by the police - and searched the streets to try to find it.

She added the defendant, originally from Rwanda, had contacted the police to say the van had been stolen and that it had been parked outside his home the previous night.

Defending Gordana Turudija-Austin said: “This is one of those cases where a lie is set and it’s very difficult to go back.”

Ms Turudija-Austin added Cyuma’s actions were of ‘sheer panic’ and that he ‘felt scared and confused’ and did not know what to do after the collision.