The mother of all cons
By JOHN ASKILL THE SUN

A blonde stuffed a towel under her blouse in a bid to trick a judge into believing she was pregnant — and spare her boyfriend from jail.

Claire Jardine, 28, stood in the witness box and gave an impassioned performance.

She claimed to be Amanda Burton, a nurse who was five months pregnant with crook Paul Eaton’s child.

Jardine told Judge Richard Benson the baby would need its father and promised to look after Eaton at home.

But the judge had been tipped off about the scam — and had Jardine arrested the moment she stepped down.

The conwoman then whipped out the towel, handed it to court staff and said: “You’d better have the baby.”

Jardine — who had NEVER met Eaton — was yesterday jailed herself for six months after admitting trying to pervert justice.

A court heard she had agreed to help the crook after being asked by her real lover John Wright.

The two men had become pals in jail. Wright phoned Jardine and told her he could save Eaton from five years’ jail and she would be well rewarded. But prison staff monitored the calls.

Jardine went through the charade at Leicester Crown Court.

Defending Jardine, Graham Buchanen told the same court yesterday: “This girl is really rather stupid and the gravity of what she was doing was not apparent to her.”

Wright, 36, and Eaton, 46, were also given six months’ jail for perverting justice. Eaton got a further six months for using a stolen credit card.

Jailing the three defendants, all from Leicester, Judge Peter Morrell said: “These courts form a well of justice and this well must not be polluted by the sort of conduct you engaged in.”