Walt in court...
Wesley Tierney, 25 of Letchworth, was given an eight month prison sentence suspended for 14 months after earlier pleading guilty to five charges – including three counts of acting as flight crew of an aircraft without holding an appropriate licence and two counts of forgery with attempt to deceive.
The court heard he was charged on three specific three flights but had flown ‘numerous occasions’ over the course of four years.
In a real life version with similarities to the hit Hollywood film Catch Me If You Can, a 2002 American biographical crime movie directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Leonardo Di Caprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walkern and Martin Sheen – based on the life of Frank Abagnale who posed as a Pan Am pilot – all in court listened intently to the incredible story.
It was heard Tierney flew planes from three RAF bases including Old Warden Aerodrome in Bedfordshire, as well as RAF Wittering and RAF Kirton for four years without a licence or training.
In 2008 Tierney joined a volunteer gliding squadron and obtained a military flying qualification.
However in 2010 as part of frequent checks and validations he claimed to hold a civil pilots licence.
His claim was accepted and he continued to claim he held the requisite licence which allowed him to fly civil registered aircraft – meaning that ‘on multiple occasions’ between August 2012 to August 2016 he flew airplanes completely unqualified.
Among the multiple flights on a number of different aircraft types he took over the course of the four year web of deceit he took his former partner and their four and five-year-old children into the air – along with family and friends and people ‘he wished to impress’.
He had no liability insurance cover – and if there had been a crash Recorder Sandeep Kanith told him ‘there was a substantial risk of harm which cannot be quantified.’
Judge Kanith who told prosecutor Alison Slater wryly Tierney’s case was an “interesting one”, added, “this is about competency and trust. He was never trained and never tested.
“You need requisite stamina and need to have been tested thoroughly. Flying a plane is not easy. I know because I have taken flying lessons myself. Flying an aeroplane is not an easy thing to do.”
Bespectacled, slightly-built and wiry Tierney, who represented himself, arrived in court wearing an expensive grey suit three piece suit holding an umbrella with a tortoiseshell crook handle.
He spoke in a loud, confident voice addressing the judge directly, attempting to explain why he flew on multiple occasions without a licence, saying: “I let my lies escalate. I let the situation get out of control.
“I was trying to fit in with others. I was trying to be able to fit into conversations.
“The only relief I have was the relief of finally being caught and having my cycle of lies broken. It was a relief not to have to pretend in the bar or the mess anymore.
“I was a can-do, cocksure individual – that was the person I was”, adding cryptically, “my guidance in my teens was a little misguided.”
The court heard Tierney now works in a London museum taking home £1,900 a month. He added: “Stability is not having a job you can brag about to people in a bar or in the mess.
“I’ve learned my lesson. I need to be punished.”
He involuntarily shrugged his shoulders when Judge Kanith asked him what he thought of the options of ‘immediate imprisonment’ or receiving a suspended sentence, replying in a well-spoken, confident voice “either of the punishments would be suitable but I feel I have already been sufficiently punished for what I have done.
“Being selfish I would like a suspended sentence.”
In summing up Judge Kanith told the court: “It is quite clear your offending took place over a number of years. You put lives at risk including your former partner. “But what puzzles me is this: You took very young children – aged four and five – into the air, knowing full well you did not hold the requisite qualification.
“Why take the risk?
“Why take the risk with young children who put their absolute trust in you?
“You simply cannot put peoples lives at risk.”
As the judge prepared to hand down his sentence Tierney gulped and his face flushed and he wobbled slightly as the judge told him: “I would not have blinked twice to send you to prison if you had not pleaded guilty.
“To fly a plane you need requisite stamina and training – which was not tested on you. You showed no concern for the welfare of your passengers including two young children.
“Thankfully you were duly caught from doing what you were doing – and the fact you have pleaded guilty means I am going to give you a suspended sentence.”
As the sentence was handed down Tierney nodded and exhaled in relief.
Tierney was given an eight month prison sentence suspended for 14 months. He was also ordered to pay £750 in costs and must undertake 140 hours of voluntary work.