A DRINK-driver who crashed a car which had no rear seats and with a child in the back has avoided jail – but has been banned from driving for five years.

Lauren Cole, of Twineham Road, Oakhurst, appeared nervous as she waited for Swindon magistrates to decide her fate yesterday.

She was handed a suspended 20-week sentence and a 60-month driving ban while over the alcohol limit on August 15.

She was also given a seven-week concurrent suspended sentence for endangering the life of an eight-year-old child riding in the back of the vehicle when the incident occurred.

Her licence was also endorsed for using a vehicle without third party insurance, and driving a vehicle in the absence of a licence.

But the 24-year-old was told that she would not have to carry out her jail term on the condition that she would be under supervision of probation for 18 months, she would have to take a Thinking Skills course and she would carry out 240 hours of unpaid work as well as pay £85 in costs and £80 in victim surcharge.

Chairman of the magistrates, Gail Chilcott, told Cole: “We are making this order because the offence is so serious that custody is the only suitable option and we have reduced your sentence because you pleaded guilty to the offence.

“You are disqualified from driving for 60 months and this means you can’t drive any motor vehicle on a road or public place from this moment until the end of you disqualification on September 9, 2019.”

Cole pleaded guilty to the offences earlier this month after she crashed the Vauxhall Corsa she was driving into a car moments after leaving the Green Baize Social Club, in Horsham Crescent, Swindon.

She claimed the steering wheel locked and although she attempted to brake the car did not stop, and she crashed into a nearby stationary vehicle.

When police officers arrived they found the car and Cole along with a female passenger and the bleeding child.

They carried out a roadside breath test, which she failed, and later underwent another alcohol test at the station.

Mark Glendenning, defending, said: “Miss Cole accepts in full responsibility for what had happened. The vehicle had been loaned to her by a friend.”