A motorist has been handed a suspended sentence after driving while she was disqualified.

Sophie Margaret Callister, of Berrywoods Avenue, said she thought her ban had ended in January when she drove home from the Creg ny Baa on March 11.

Magistrates sentenced the 32-year-old to three months’ custody suspended for two years and also banned her for a further two years.

Prosecuting advocate Barry Swain told the court that Callister was disqualified for three years in October 2017 with an order to retake her test at the end of the ban.

However, on March 11 at 1.35pm police saw her driving at Brandish on the Mountain Road and followed her to Governor’s Hill shops, where she stopped and was arrested.

Defence advocate David Reynolds said that Callister had gone out for a meal with her partner with him driving to the Creg ny Baa.

’She decided when leaving she would like to drive the short distance home,’ said the advocate.

’She tells me she was aware of the disqualification obviously but she had in her head that it ended in January and her partner thought the same.

’We would submit this was not a deliberate attempt to disobey a court order.’

Callister admitted driving while disqualified as well as having no insurance.

She was fined £200 for the insurance offence and also ordered to pay £125 costs.