Convicted sex attacker posed as policeman to get job at hotel


A convicted sex offender has been sent down after posing as a special constable to gain work as a hotel receptionist.
Jordan Leigh Scott-Michael, 42, was handed four months in prison at North Cheshire Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday after pleading guilty to one count of impersonating a special constable or police officer
Rob Youds, prosecuting, told the hearing that lying Scott-Michael had duped the then manager Martin Barrie into giving him a job by saying he was a special constable and that at the Daresbury Park Hotel, which lies between Runcorn and Warrington, would ‘have an on-site police officer ready to make any arrests’.
Suspicions were roused among real police officers over two incidents in particular.
Mr Youds said Abby Connor, the defendant’s supervisor, said he had carried a warrant card and had told her he volunteered as a special in Manchester for four hours a week.
She recalled that on May 6, a guest came to reception reporting a domestic incident involving two guests fighting.
Scott-Michael told her: “I’m going to have to go, I’m going to have to arrest this man, I have to do my job.”
A member of staff told a genuine attending police officer that a colleague was a policeman and had gone to the room of the dispute.
Scott-Michael introduced himself to the officer as a ‘special constable’.
On May 28, a ‘paranoid’ guest was refusing to leave and being abusive to staff and claiming they were ‘undercover police officers’ and Scott-Michael, who Mr Barrie recalled kept a police warrant card holder in his pocket, antagonised him and was moved away as a result.
A real police officer had attended over the incident and said two women with him said ‘he was not lying’ because a member of staff had claimed to be a special.
Scott-Michael, who had worked at the hotel from April to June, volunteered to be interviewed and made some admissions but denied telling staff he was a special and denied carrying a warrant card holder.
He pleaded guilty at North Cheshire Magistrates’ Court to impersonating a police officer on November 8.
Mr Youds said the defendant has 18 convictions for 82 offences including impersonating a police officer in 2007 and in 2012 he was convicted of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl in Manchester after telling her he was a policeman.
Other offences have included fraud and indecent images – which was his most recent conviction and for which he was still on licence when he was pretending to be a policeman in Daresbury.
Helen Dugdale, defending, argued mitigation for his guilty plea, his past compliance with court orders and because Scott-Michael would have to spend ‘24 hours a day’ on his own in cell protection in prison.
District judge Bridget Knight, presiding, sentenced Scott-Michael to four months in prison, reduced by two months from the maximum penalty allowed for his guilty plea.
She said: “You are a man who’s committed this offence before.
“You obtained the job in the hotel, it seems because of your feeling useful as a special constable and saying they would have a police office on the premises so you especially hoodwinked those employers.
“You were on licence at the time having been released on that licence and the nature of those offences causes the court grave concern that you obtained the job you did by leading people to believe you were a police officer.
“You undermine the public’s confidence in the police.
“If people go round impersonating officers then how are we to know when a person is a genuine officer?
“That’s one of the more serious consequences of your behaviour.”
Scott-Michael’s address cannot be published due to an order from the court.
Britannia Hotels, which runs Daresbury Park Hotel, was contacted for comment.