A disgraced magistrate used his time in jail for lying about drink-driving to complete his first novel.

John Bosomworth, the former owner of J B Cara-Cars on Coutances Way, Ilkley, was sent to prison for 15 months in 1996 for attempting to pervert the course of justice.

He had been serving as a magistrate in Skipton in 1994 when a vehicle he was driving was involved in an accident.

Mr Bosomworth, who was over the alcohol limit at the time, told police his wife had been driving.

But subsequent investigations discovered he had lied.

He said: "That night fate took a hand and my life was changed forever. However, there was a silver lining. I did what I have always wanted to do, and that was to write."

He had begun a thriller earlier, and with time on his hands in prison he was able to complete Carlos II which is published this week.

The content for the novel was drawn from his memories of life before prison. He started motor racing in the 1960s but had to give it up after a bad accident.

He said: "After that, and hungry for some form of competition and excitement, I went back to my roots: guns, sporting and the military. I shot in the British, English and county teams, which took me all around the world."

For the book Mr Bosomworth uses the pseudonym James Hayward-Searle, which was his grandfather's name.

He said he got little help with the book while I was in prison: "I just kept myself to myself and got on with the job in hand."

Mr Bosomworth claims involvement with the security services while he ran a shooting school and gun-dealing business at his former home at Gibbeter Farm, Beamsley, near Skipton.

He said: "During this time I was involved with the shady world of intelligence, using and selling surveillance and spy equipment."

He claims to draw on his personal experiences for the plot of Carlos II which is about a Spanish cargo freighter carrying wheat from Russia and the involvement of a British intelligence officer.

On his release from prison after seven and a half months, Mr Bosomworth went to live in Majorca.

He has also written another book, A Magistrate in Disgrace, which has not been published, and is at work on a sequel to Carlos II called No Replacement.

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