A mother of two has set an innocent woman up after she was caught driving a pickup truck without insurance.
Juliann Quilligan, 28, falsely gave her name as Rebecca Williams after police stopped her Mitsubishi L200 pulling a trailer on the M62 motorway. She then remained silent while the victim unknowingly received eight penalty points on her licence.
Ms Williams, 34, only discovered she had been wrongly convicted when she tried to renew her own car insurance. She was returned to court and faced a trial before the conviction for no insurance was eventually quashed after an eight-month legal ordeal.
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The victim also received a number of parking tickets and missed out on job opportunities because he did not have a valid driver’s license.
Police tracked down Quilligan after examining CCTV footage of the moment she was arrested. It emerged that she knew Ms Williams through an ex-boyfriend and that the pair had previously dated.
When questioned, Quilligan said she “panicked” because she was “afraid” to interact with police due to mental health issues. Quilligan was released from court last week after telling a judge she was pregnant with her third child, due in September.
At Chester Crown Court she was sentenced to nine months in prison, suspended for 18 months, after she admitted perverting the course of public justice.
The scam began after Quilligan, who moved to the UK to escape her travelling community in Galway, Ireland, was stopped while driving her pickup truck and trailer on the westbound carriageway of the M62, near Apollo Park in Warrington, on January 5, 2022.
Prosecutor Shannon Stewart told the court: “The driver identified herself as Rebecca Williams and checks revealed she was not insured to drive the vehicle.
”In May 2022, Rebecca Williams contacted an insurance company to purchase insurance. She was told that there was a flag on her license for driving without insurance and other traffic violations.
“Ms Williams was unaware of any traffic offences so contacted the DVLA and was told she had been convicted at Chester Magistrates Court for having no insurance. Ms Williams then contacted the police as she believed someone had fraudulently supplied her details.”
When the court saw footage of the incident, it heard that Ms Williams was able to identify Quilligan.
“The defendant was the best friend of Ms Williams’ ex-partner and so they were in regular contact,” Ms Stewart explained. “Ms Williams had never had access to or possession of the vehicle.
“As a result of this incident, Ms. Williams has received parking tickets and incident logs that have nothing to do with her. She has also been denied jobs because she needs a valid driver’s license.
”There were serious consequences for an innocent party as a result of the offence. Ms Williams received a conviction and penalty points which affected her insurance and resulted in loss of opportunities as she struggled to find employment.”
After being arrested on November 1 last year, Kingscote GardensSkelmersdale, West Lancashire, denied she was the person in the CCTV footage.
In mitigation, her lawyer Gareth Roberts said: “She is rightly ashamed of the way she has acted. She wishes to apologise through me for any distress and inconvenience she has caused Mrs Williams, who she recognises as a completely innocent woman who did not deserve this.
“For this woman, the prospect of going into custody is terrifying. She is a mother of small children and pregnant with her third child.”
Mr Roberts argued that Quilligan’s actions were “not carefully considered or pre-planned”.
He added: “It was an extremely reckless decision, brought on by the prospect of being questioned by the police officer, something she is not familiar with and given her mental health issues she was not really equipped to deal with.
“She came from the travelling community and in 2019 she had a nervous breakdown. Part of that nervous breakdown had to do with and led to her increasing alienation from the community and eventually it led to her leaving, moving and basically living alone with two children aged six and two.
“This has been extremely difficult for her. What she has done is provide stability for herself and also for her children. One thing that worried her was that her children were not getting an education, which is often the culture that she grew up in and she wanted better for her children. They are both now in school.
“She is waiting for her child to be born in September. All she wants to do is put this behind her and continue to be a good mother to her children.”
When Judge Anthony O’Donohoe passed sentence on Quilligan last Tuesday (July 16), she was also ordered to complete 20 days of rehabilitation activities with the probation service.
He described Quilligan’s actions as “extremely serious” and told her: “When I first read this case, I was very confused by it. I want you to know that you are very close to not leaving the courthouse through those doors, but through those doors into the cells behind you.
“I assume you are caring for two young children, aged six and two, and are expecting your third child in September.
“I accept that you are motivated never to put yourself in this position again where you could be separated from your children for a significant period of time. We do not want to see you anymore.”
Court documents show Rebecca Williams, 32, from Warrington, was convicted of driving a Mitsubishi without insurance and towing a trailer without a secondary coupling device on the M62.
She was booked for trial after she later made a statutory declaration at Warrington Magistrates Court that she was not the driver. The charges were dropped a month later and Ms Williams was found not guilty of the offences.