A PARKED car belonging to Gazette and Herald photographer Angie Simms rolled down a road in Devizes due to a defective handbrake.

Police found members of the public holding the Citroen car preventing it from travelling further down Station Road.

Simms, 25, of Redstocks, Seend, pleaded guilty at Devizes Magistrates Court to being in charge of a vehicle where it remained a danger of causing injury to anyone using the road.

Becky Abbott, prosecuting, said WPC Amy Morrison attended the incident which happened on Remembrance Sunday at about 12.30pm.

Miss Abbott said: "Members of the public managed to lodge the car against the kerb to stop it rolling further.

"It ended up on the correct side of the road but was on a bend in a dangerous position close to some houses."

Simms returned to her car and the officer and a colleague spoke to her and examined her car.

Miss Abbott said: "The officers found the handbrake was defective.

"There was no resistance and it worked purely on a ratchet system. The clutch was also found to be of a very poor standard."

Simms who represented herself in court, said she had left her car in Station Road while she covered the Remembrance Day parade in Devizes.

She told the court: "I had been sitting in the car for half an hour reading a newspaper beforehand and it was OK.

"When I came back I saw the car was about 20 metres down the road and police were there.

"The MOT was done a few months before this happened.

"I assumed everything was OK but obviously it was not right.

"I have no mechanical mind, I assumed it was OK."

Simms said she paid £100 to have the car recovered following the incident.

She had also paid for the repairs to be done.

The court heard Simms was an Australian national.

She is working in England on a visa which runs out in two months time.

She had three penalty points on her driving licence imposed in June 2004 for a speeding offence.

For this offence the magistrates imposed three penalty points, fined her £80 and ordered her to pay prosecution costs of £35.