South Yorkshire offender is jailed after duping security staff into tagging her friend

Chloe Brannan, aged 20, of Monkspring, Worsbrough, Barnsley, was originally given a six-week custodial sentence suspended for 12 months at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court in relation to offences including making off without paying and shoplifting.

Sheffield Crown Court later heard on June 7 how Brannan had also been placed on a 12-week curfew with an electronic tag but when security staff came to fit the tag she duped them into putting it on her friend’s leg instead.

Sammuel Ponniah, prosecuting, said tagging staff attended Brannan’s home on June 19, 2020, where Brannan’s friend was falsely identified as her and the staff were misguided into attaching the tag to the defendant’s friend.

But when Brannan’s friend was arrested seven days later for an unrelated offence the tag was found and removed and police attended Brannan’s home and found her hiding under a bed.

Judge David Dixon told Brannan: “The reality is that you perverted the course of justice in that you knew the court had ordered a particular sentence that applied to you.”

He added: “You not only put yourself at risk but you put your friend at risk and indeed she has gone into custody.”

Brannan, who has previous convictions, told police she had been drinking and the tag had been put on the wrong person which she thought was funny and it meant she could go out.

She pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice, breaching a suspended prison sentence and to failing to surrender for a court appearance.

Chris Aspinall, defending, said Brannan has had no guidance for years and she is someone who feels she has been rejected by the system.

Judge Dixon acknowledged Brannan has had an awful start in life but said she had been given a chance by the courts.

He told her: “You have got your whole life ahead of you. People have let you down in the past. Do not let that define you.”

Judge Dixon sentenced Brannan to 12 months of custody.

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