A former policeman and Olympic swimmer who turned to crime while serving with the Essex force was today starting an eight-month jail sentence

Marvin Rothman, 39, of Boscawen Gardens, Braintree, was sentenced at Ipswich Crown Court yesterday

He had admitted several offences, including an attempted insurance deception over an engagement ring.

In jail - former Olympic swimmer Marvin Rothman, pictured with his wife, Nicola, who was cleared of any involvement in the deceptions

His wife Nicola, 29, of the same address, and still an officer with the force - although currently suspended - was cleared of any part in the deceptions in a trial in March

She was to have faced another trial on a further offence relating to fraudulent use of a credit card but that was yesterday dropped by the prosecution.

Her barrister, Matthew Gowan, successfully applied to Recorder Michael Pooles QC for her to be awarded £340 travel expenses for 15 trips to court since the proceedings began.

Her defence was that she knew nothing about what her husband was doing.

But despite the ending of criminal proceedings against her, she faces police disciplinary action.

Marvin Rothman was yesterday sentenced after admitting four attempted deception charges and one of making off without payment.

Jonathan Rees, prosecuting, said one offence concerned a false £8,700 insurance claim, including a diamond engagement ring worth more than £7,500, said to have been stolen while the couple were on holiday in the Dominican Republic in June 2001.

Rothman was seen by passengers on the flight to propose to Nicola with the ring.

The court heard from Mr Rees that another attempted deception charge concerned using a credit card after it was supposedly stolen.

These added up to more than £1,500.

Another attempted deception involved altering a receipt from a place where he had kennelled his dog so it showed £352 rather than £52.

The making off without payment charge arose from him putting nearly £20 of petrol in his car at a service station then driving off without paying.

His barrister, Simon Russell-Flint, said Rothman, who joined Essex Police in 1986, had been a high achiever in sport, even becoming an Olympic swimmer, but in recent years he had suffered mental health problems.

Sentencing him, the recorder said there was a strong case for saying that offences were all the more serious for being committed by police officers

Published Friday, May 23, 2003

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