A woman from Crawley Down has been sentenced to 12 months imprisonment for perverting the course of justice.

 Her lies to the police led to an innocent man spending five months on remand in prison.  Twenty three year old Hayley Carter was sentenced following a hearing at the Court of Appeal last Thursday.  Hayley Carter made a statement to police which further incriminated a man and led to the case against another man being dropped as a direct result.  

She had previously been given an 18 month community order at Hove Crown Court but the Crown Prosecution Service appealed against the sentence as being unduly lenient.  This led to the Court of Appeal hearing which replaced it with a prison sentence.