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A judge told a banned drink-driver who smashed into three other vehicles that she would have been jailed if she were a man.

Judge Sarah Buckingham said "alcoholic" Victoria Parry would have been "straight down the stairs" to prison had her sex been different.

The 30-year-old, who already had two previous convictions for drink-driving was dragged from her Fiat Stilo after the car caught fire following the pile-up on the A46 last May.

Tests showed she was almost three times over the drink-drive limit, while Warwick Crown Court heard she had been drinking up to two bottles of wine a day.

Parry - left with a "considerable drink problem" after a 15-year abusive relationship - had also been banned from driving for three years in July 2015 for her second excess alcohol offence.

But - after calling the case "shocking" - the judge delayed sentencing Parry for three months after she admitted a charge of dangerous driving.

And the judge said: “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.”

The crash happened at around 6.50pm on May 23 after Parry overtook in the middle of the road in the face of oncoming traffic on the A46 Stratford by-pass.

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She smashed into a van, a Vauxhall Insignia and wrote off a BMW.

Her Fiat then plunged down an embankment and burst into flames in woodland.

Parry, of Grange Road, Bearley, Stratford-upon-Avon, told an off-duty police officer who rushed to help that she had drunk a bottle of wine and "shouldn't be driving", the court heard.

Tim Sapwell, prosecuting, said Parry was arrested, and when she took a breath test at the police station almost two hours later, the reading was only just under three times the legal limit.

Lucy Tapper, defending, said: “There is deep and genuine regret on her part.

“Having a crash presents its own consequences in terms of what you’ve done, and to have your car burst into flames is quite terrifying. She says she thought she was going to die.

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“This has been a very salutary lesson to her. I would ask that she be spared immediate custody, if at all possible.”

Miss Tapper said Parry had been in an abusive relationship for 15 years, and for the last five years had found herself with a considerable drink problem.

“She was unable to tackle that after the first offence and after the second offence, but since this matter she has all but stopped drinking.”

(Image: Dale Martin)

Judge Buckingham remarked: “All but! So she hasn’t stopped.”

Miss Tapper said Parry had ‘got it under control,’ and was no longer drinking two bottles of wine a day, and was out of the relationship and in a job where she had stepped down from a management role but was now working her way back up.

The judge commented: “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.”

Deferring sentence, Judge Buckingham told Parry: “You richly deserve an immediate custodial sentence of 18 months. I want to see whether you can really address the issues rather than paying lip service.”

Parry was ordered to abstain from alcohol, attend meetings of a body such as Alcoholics Anonymous, and to pay for private counselling to tackle her alcohol problem.

The judge told her: “If you succeed, I will not make the custody immediate. If you don’t comply, I will conclude that you are not worthy of the chance.”