A former partner of City firm Macfarlanes who claimed he was the victim of a kidnap to avoid being arrested for drink driving was today sentenced to 12 months in prison.

Francis Bridgeman, 43, from Wards Lane, Wadhurst, East Sussex, was found guilty of perverting the course of justice on 16 December 2011. The verdict followed a five-day trial at Brighton Crown Court.

On 7 April 2010, after Bridgeman’s Land Rover had crashed into a telegraph pole and been found abandoned in a ditch, he told the police that armed men had kidnapped him before driving him off in another vehicle at knifepoint with a bag over his head. He was then dumped beside the road, he claimed.

But a breath test indicated that he was over the drink drive limit and he was arrested on suspicion of drink driving. He was found to be 10 micrograms over the limit.

CCTV footage showed him walking in a drunken manner and, crucially, his DNA was found on the Range Rover's airbag, showing that he must have been driving the car when it crashed.

Passing sentence, judge Michael Guy Anthony said: ‘You wasted valuable police time and public expense in order to escape a drink-driving offence when you should have had the courage and decency to plead guilty from the outset. To pervert the course of justice is a serious offence and warrants a custodial sentence.’

Bridgeman was also ordered to pay £4,200 in costs and has been disqualified from driving for 18 months.