A two-timing police officer defrauded an insurance company after a car accident as she tried to keep her affair a secret, a court heard today.

Pc Nicola King, 30, said she was the driver of a car involved in a crash last May and claimed £1,400 from RSA Insurance Group.

She was in fact the passenger and one of her boyfriends was behind the wheel of the Subaru.

King, who worked at Romford police station, lied to prevent her partner from finding out she had been secretly dating another man.

The mother of two later admitted she lied and informed RSA she was not the driver in October.

She was handed 160 hours’ unpaid work and ordered to pay £1,400 compensation to RSA after admitting fraud by false representation at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

Her career is now over, but District Judge Michael Snow was shocked that King had continued to work on restricted duties while under investigation.

The court heard that King previously had an “unblemished” eight-year career.

Mitigating, Ms Roberson said King fell pregnant last February but her boyfriend did not want to have a child, so she terminated the pregnancy.

After a family illness, she was signed off work in March, so was not working at the time of the car accident.

Ms Roberson said: “She was really struggling to cope with the situation she found herself in.”

Judge Snow told King it was a “serious act of dishonesty”.

He said: “You don’t receive a greater punishment because at the time of this offence you were an acting police officer, but it is clearly relevant to the background to this.

King must also pay £85 prosecution costs and a £60 witness tax.