A DRIVER high on heroin and crack cocaine who left a trail of terror behind her as she piled into the central reservation on Fleming Way has been jailed for a year.

Melanie Wynne who doesn't have a driving licence caused chaos on the short journey from the back of Woolworth's to the dual carriageway outside the Wiltshire Hotel.

The 26-year-old:

Pulled away with screeching tyres and smashed into a parked car.

Swung across the road and on to the pavement opposite.

Reversed into another car which had three children on the back seat.

Drove along scraping against the wall of the magistrates' court causing pedestrians to scatter.

Stalled the car and restarted it as a passer by tried to open the door and grab the keys.

Drove over plastic bollards on the pavement.

Careered at 30mph across the mini roundabout junction outside the police station.

Piled into the central reservation and tried to restart the car.

Claire Marlow, prosecuting, said witnesses heard the car revving when it pulled away at about 4.30pm last September.

When she was arrested and taken to the police station a doctor was called to take a sample of her blood as she was unsteady on her feet.

Miss Marlow said the blood showed Wynne had recently taken heroin and there were also signs of methadone, cocaine and other drugs.

At an earlier hearing, when a judge deferred sentence on her, Wynne, of Ray Close, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving while unfit through drugs, having no insurance and no licence.

The court was then told that she was on a methadone prescription to get off heroin and was trying to sort out her life.

However, last month she was jailed for two months by magistrates for two counts of shoplifting and failing to surrender to custody.

James Newton-Price, defending, said that since she had been sent to jail she had managed to get off drugs completely.

He said she realised she had been given plenty of chances by the courts in the past and not taken any of them.

He said: "She says everything she did that day was stupid. She regrets the whole day. She is alarmed and surprised at the way she drove that day.

"She is an intelligent articulate woman whose life has been severely affected by her drug addiction."

He said she went into care at 13 and left school at 16 without any qualifications.

He added: "Although she has been a drug addict since she was 16 it does appear that she was able for a time to contain that.

"The history set out in the report shows that from the age of 19 to 21 or 22 she was able to hold down an office job."

He said that as well as the offending on her record to fund her addiction, she also resorted to prostitution to pay for drugs.

Jailing her for a year Judge Mark Dyer said "It is a great disappointment for me to see you here.

"This was a terribly serious offence putting other people's lives in jeopardy.

"It is a short time if it breaks you free of your drug habit."

He also banned her from the road for 18 months.