A drink-driver learner who took police on a hair-raising 80 mph chase through Dover has avoided going to jail.

Lauren Beany turned out the car lights, drove on the wrong side of the road, through red traffic lights, round a police "stinger" and at one point, with all four wheels off the ground.

Beany from Waters End, Temple Ewell, was only nabbed when she lost control and the car ended up on its roof.

Now a judge has told her: "That was a monumentally stupid, reckless and concerted piece of driving. You are a very immature 20 year old indeed. It is time you grew up.

"Many young people make mistakes but few do so in such a spectacularly dangerous manner!"

Jobless Beany was also over the drink-drive limit at the time, had no insurance and had never taken a driving test.

Judge Simon James told her: "It seems to me that it was only by good fortune that neither you nor anyone else was seriously hurt.

"You showed no regard for your passenger or for the danger you posed to other road-users."

Prosecutor Jim Harvey told how police spotted her car near Deal when Beany was driving erratically and they decided to follow her.

When officers ordered her to pull over near Jubilee Way she accelerated away, driving up to 80mph through built-up areas.

He said her vehicle travelled through red lights causing other vehicles to take avoiding action and when police used a "stinger" device to stop her, she drove around it.

But as she sped along a single track lane in wet weather near Ewell Minnis, police slowed down because officers thought it too dangerous to follow closely.

Mr Harvey said police lost sight of her car for 15 to 20 seconds and when they arrived at a bend found Beany's car upside down with steam coming from the engine.

Phil Rowley said Beany, who now plans to live with her sister in Alkham, was suffering from anxiety and hadn't been able to work.

She was given a 12-month jail sentence suspended for 18 months, banned from driving for three years and given an electronic curfew for four months from 8pm to 7am.