Mum helped 'two bad lads' to hide from the police

A 24-YEAR-OLD woman helped her boyfriend and another yob avoid arrest — by paying for them to stay in a caravan 220 miles from their Stoke-on-Trent home.

- Sentinel Reporter

Laurie Bancroft was in a relationship with one of two men police were looking for after a serious incident in Dartmouth Street, Burslem.

Police received information that she knew where they were but she denied knowing their whereabouts despite them being housed in a caravan in Great Yarmouth that she had booked and paid for.

But police caught up with the fugitives and Bancroft, who had travelled to Norfolk to be with them.

Now she has been sentenced to 18 weeks in prison, suspended for two years, at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court. It comes after one of the yobs was locked up for 80 months, and the second man jailed for four years.

Prosecutor Callum Church said: “The offenders were identified quickly by the victims and they were captured on CCTV. Police could not locate either defendant.

“However a week later they were arrested hiding inside a caravan at a holiday park in Great Yarmouth.