A DEESIDE policeman's career is in tatters after he tried to escape punishment for driving without an MoT certificate.

When stopped he lied at the roadside and said it had been “done last week”.

Dean Hardy, a police officer for eight years, was told to produce the documents and at the police station he filled a form in to say everything was in order when it was not.

He did not produce his documents to anyone.

Hardy simply filled in the form himself and asked a junior officer to sign it without seeing his MoT certificate.

That officer trusted Hardy and took him at his word, Mold Crown Court was told yesterday.

Hardy, 34, based at Deeside Police Station denied an act tending to pervert the course of justice.

He was convicted and told a prison sentence was inevitable.

Judge Paul Thomas adjourned the case for three weeks and said Hardy would be sentenced at Cardiff or Swansea crown courts.

Hardy, already suspended, would inevitably lose his police career as a result of his bid to avoid prosecution for a minor offence.

Judge Thomas bailed him on condition that he surrendered his passport.

Kate Meredith-Jones, prosecuting, said Hardy had done it simply to try to avoid a prosecution for not having an MoT certificate.

Significantly, she said he had left areas of the form blank when he filled it at the police station.

It was agreed the silver Peugeot 106 which he was driving at the time did not have a MoT certificate.

He said on the form that he was on the way to the testing station at the time, but it had not been tested until a week later, she said.

Hardy denied acting dishonesty.

He said there were only three officers covering Deeside that night and he filled in the details of the form himself.

It was normally done by civilian officers and he was not used to completing the form, he claimed.

Hardy, then of Llandudno Road, Colwyn Bay, but now of Cambrian Way in Moreton, Wirral, said he wanted to “keep it low profile” and did not want to become “a laughing stock at the police station” for being caught without a MoT certificate. He had left the form for another officer to check over and sign.

Rod Priestly, defending, said the jury could not be sure Hardy had acted dishonestly.

No date has yet been fixed for sentencing.