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A carer who drove at another motorist in a road rage row was saved from prison - largely by the good she does for others in her job.

“What are you doing to do, run me over?” a driver asked Karen Davies in an argument.

She replied: “Yes.”

Davies, 58, drove at the 21-year-old, putting him on the bonnet of her son’s car, prosecutor Emma Atkinson told Teesside Crown Court.

The Vauxhall Corsa carried him about two metres until he fell off the passenger side at a roundabout on Wolviston Road, Billingham.

A judge did not jail Davies for using the vehicle as a weapon, saying prison could halt her career.

Recorder Mark McKone said she cared for terminally ill people and a young woman with autism, and had spent her life helping others.

Davies was heading to work when she hit the back of the younger man’s VW Golf at about 8am on November 7 last year, the court heard on Monday.

She refused to give her details, leading to a “heated discussion”.

The 21-year-old man “called her a name he wouldn’t normally use” and tried to take photos of the Corsa.

Then he asked her what she would do as she got back into the vehicle.

She was described as speeding up but not going fast as she hit him.

A shocked witness said he had “never seen anything like it before”.

The victim managed to drive home but suffered pain and went to the University Hospital of North Tees the next day.

He had whiplash with a hip fracture, did not need surgery but had to take time off work.

Davies, of Selwyn Drive, Bishopsgarth, Stockton, drove off, initially made denials but later owned up.

She admitted dangerous driving, assault causing actual bodily harm, failing to stop or report an accident and having no insurance.

Alex Bousfield, defending, said: “She made bad decision on bad decision. She compounded the situation and it got out of control.”

He said Davies was “very keen to get to work”, had a problem with her car, did not want to let people down and foolishly used her son’s car without arranging insurance.

He said she had the minor accident, the two drivers exchanged “choice language” and she tried to get away at low speed.

Mr Bousfield added: “Ms Davies does regret what happened. She did ultimately accept responsibility.

“She doesn’t appear to be a person who ordinarily sets out to harm people. Quite the opposite.”

He told how she had worked in the care industry since she was 16, her employer wrote a letter to the court and her job was still available.

Recorder McKone, told Davies: “I accept that the complainant called you an inappropriate name. He perhaps unwisely said to you: ‘What are you going to do, run me over?’

“Quite obviously driving at anybody at any speed with a motor car is extremely dangerous.

“In almost every case where a car is used as a weapon, an immediate sentence of imprisonment is imposed to deter anybody else who wants to behave in that way.”

But he took into account the short period of driving, low speed and, most importantly, Davies’ work.

“If you are sent to prison today it seems to me you likely will find it difficult to get work again in the future,” he added.

He gave her a nine-month jail term suspended for two years with 250 hours’ unpaid work, 15 days’ rehabilitation activity.

She must pay the victim £750 compensation and is banned from driving for 18 months.