A police officer has been jailed after lying about his involvement in a road-rage incident and convincing a friend to supply a fake alibi.
Zaid Malik, who used to work for West Midlands Police, was accused of being the aggressor following a row with another driver in Stechford, Birmingham, in February 2015.
But the prosecution of the Coventry-based officer was discontinued when a seemingly independent witness supported Malik's claim that he was innocent.
Officers discovered inconsistencies in the accounts of Roger Baker and Malik - and went on to discover they were friends and Baker was not at the scene of the incident.
Malik, 51, was jailed for 21 months and 50-year-old Baker, of Westfield Road in Acocks Green, Birmingham, was jailed for a year after both were found guilty of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
Following the sentencing at Birmingham Crown Court on Tuesday, Chief Inspector Brian Carmichael said: "Pc Malik convinced a friend to provide a false alibi that muddied the waters of the road-rage investigation.
"Investigators were presented with conflicting accounts from what appeared to be independent sources over who was the aggressor and who was responsible.
"However, our officers uncovered the truth - and both men are now paying with jail sentences."
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