A drink-driver who went back behind the wheel only a month after being banned has been jailed, and barred from the road for six years.

Jenny Cracknell, 43 – formerly of Letchworth, but now of no fixed address – was given a four-week suspended jail term and banned from the road for 54 months on January 11, after she admitted driving up Hitchin’s Ickleford Road while unfit through drink.

But on Saturday, a month to the day later, she was found driving the same Daewoo Matiz along Norton Road in Letchworth.

Cracknell pleaded guilty to driving while banned and driving without insurance when she appeared before Hatfield magistrates chaired by Carolyn Marsh on Monday.

She also admitted stealing a Samsung Galaxy phone worth £650 while in Letchworth on Friday last week.

In addition to banning Cracknell from the road for 72 months – mandatory for the offence – Mrs Marsh sentenced her to 12 weeks in prison for the driving offences, adding another four weeks for the phone theft.

The suspended sentence was also activated to bring the total jail term to 20 weeks.

Cracknell was also ordered to pay £100 in compensation for stealing the phone.