A WOMAN from Flint who suffered serious injuries when she crashed a van has been jailed for four months after a court heard she was banned from driving.

Hayley Oldfield told emergency staff attending to her after the accident in Holywell on October 1 last year that she had been drinking.

She needed lengthy treatment at Glan Clwyd Hospital and later Stoke Mandeville after suffering a fractured back.

Because of her hospital admission Oldfield, 32, of Fourth Avenue, Flint was never charged with driving with excess alcohol

She pleaded not guilty to driving while disqualified, but was convicted after a trial and appeared for sentencing at North East Wales Magistrates’ Court.

The court was told it was Oldfield’s fifth conviction for driving while disqualified.

She received a 20-week prison sentence last July for driving while banned as well as drink driving.

Deputy District Judge Martin Jackson told her: “I will give you some allowance for the injuries you suffered as a result of the accident, but the other side of the coin is that last year you were given a custodial sentence. You would have been out of prison a matter of weeks before you drove this vehicle while you were under the influence of alcohol.

“The police were unable to bring a charge, but you admitted to paramedics you had been drinking and I have no doubt this contributed to your vehicle rolling and you sustaining the injuries you did.

“People who repeatedly drink and drive and drive while disqualified have to take the consequences.”

Prosecutor Justin Espie said that Oldfield’s van was badly damaged and had rolled a number of times on Carmel Road in Holywell.

“The driver was the defendant and she smelt of intoxicant. She was a banned driver,” said the prosecutor.

“She was asked for a sample of breath and the paramedics confirmed there was no medical reason for refusal.

“She was taken to Glan Clwyd, but she was not charged for failing to provide a sample.”

Oldfield, it was said, had learned a “hard lesson” as a consequence of her injuries.

“She was told that on the evidence of the state of the van she was extremely lucky to get out of it,” said Bethan Jones, defending.

“She accepts she was in the vehicle. She fractured her back and spent some time in hospital. It was a time in her life that she wishes to put behind her.”

Oldfield was handed an extended driving ban for two years and two months.