A serial drunk driver who ploughed into three cars after drinking a bottle of wine was spared jail by a judge who said she should not be behind bars because she is a woman.

Victoria Parry, 30, was told that if she had been a man "it would have been straight down the stairs" to prison.

But Judge Sarah Buckingham said she should be given another chance to give up drinking and get her life in order.

Parry was driving her Fiat Stilo when she hit three vehicles on the A46 near Stratford-upon-Avon before crashing into a ditch, where her car burst into flames, on May 23 last year.

The shop manager from Stratford-upon-Avon, who has two previous convictions for drunk driving, admitted dangerous driving and was given a three month deferred sentence when she appeared at Warwick Crown Court yesterday.

Judge Buckingham told the court: "If Miss Parry was a man, there is no question it would have been straight down the stairs, because this is a shocking case of dangerous driving against a background of two previous convictions for excess alcohol.

"But this offence was committed in May 2018 and she has not been in trouble since. She has clearly got an alcohol problem. She is, whether she admits it or not, an alcoholic."