A HEADTEACHER accused of insurance fraud after his BMW car was found burned out told a court that he had nothing to gain by it.

Giving evidence at Durham Crown Court yesterday, Alan Bromley said: “Why would I risk my career for this? It’s not worth my house, my career, my family.”

Asked by his barrister Tony Davis if he knew anyone who would “willy nilly take a car and burn it out” for him, Mr Bromley said: “It is not the kind of world I live in.

“I do not associate with that kind of people. I associate with other headteachers and my family.

I am a pretty quiet guy when I come home from work.”

Mr Bromley said he had gone to a carol concert involving children from his school, Wheatley Hill Primary School in County Durham, at the village workingmen’s club on December 2, 2009.

He left the car parked securely nearby.

He said he had two beers and two large Jack Daniels at the function after the deputy headteacher – his partner Joanne Nugent – said she would drive him home in her Audi.

After reaching his home at Low Knitsley Farm Cottages, near Consett, he got a call from his daughter informing him the car had been found.

Warren Grier, prosecuting, said Mr Bromley had committed the fraud for financial gain.

He said a four-year lease agreement, taken out with a Durham dealership, stipulated Mr Bromley had to pay a 4.03p per mile surcharge if he exceeded 6,000 miles a year.

Computer chips in car keys revealed the vehicle had completed more than 50,000 miles by the night it was destroyed. It was found in a back road, between Bishop Middleham and Trimdon Grange, County Durham.

Mr Bromley insisted it was impossible that he had travelled that distance in the time he had the car and believed he had only covered about 16,500 miles.

Mr Bromley, who was arrested on suspicion of making a fraudulent claim to the Liverpool Victoria Insurance Company, has denied fraud.

The case continues.