In my experience from being on a jury in England I would say absolutely don't say anything to the police unless directed by your solicitor. The amount of advers

In my experience from being on a jury in England I would say absolutely don't say anything to the police unless directed by your solicitor. The amount of adverse inference a jury will take from silence is limited if you later give a good explanation in court. A jury has to be sure to convict you, it's not the case that if you don't say anything they can convict you on the absence of evidence. If you do say something to the police it will be printed out and given to the jury and they will compare it to what you said in court. So although there is theoretically no "pleading the 5th" in UK, in practice the advice doesn't change.