A PRIMARY school teacher drove the wrong way down two roads in Chester city centre – and at one point a pub bouncer had to jump out of her way.

In an “appalling piece of driving”, Isabelle Thompson, 24, also mounted a pavement and reversed into a car after a night out with a friend on April 12 this year.

At Chester Magistrates Court on Friday (July 12) she pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving without insurance, failing to stop and failing to report an accident.

Highly emotional in the dock, she had claimed that she agreed to drive her friend’s car that night as the friend had become violently sick and a taxi company had refused to take them.

Rob Youds, prosecuting, said that after leaving Rosie’s night club the pair had got into a white VW Golf which Thompson proceeded to drive the wrong way down Bridge Street.

Chester and District Standard:

Bridge Street, Chester. (Images from Google Street View).

She turned left into Pepper Street and then turned into St John Street – a one-way street in the opposite direction.

A member of door staff at the Marlborough Arms then spotted the car and stood in the road waving their arms – something that Thompson failed to spot.

Chester and District Standard:

St John Street.

“The door supervisor had to jump out the way of the car,” Mr Youds told the court.

Thompson then manoeuvred the car around two bollards and drove over the pavement to reach Foregate Street.

Chester and District Standard:

Foregate Street.

She parked on the pavement outside the Subway sandwich shop before reversing and crashing into another car.

After briefly inspecting the damage and leaving no note, she drove off through Boughton and went home to Clonners Field in Stapeley, Cheshire East.

Chester and District Standard:

Subway on Foregate Street.

Her driving had been captured on CCTV and she voluntarily attended a police interview days later.

It was too late to carry out a breath or blood test for alcohol but she maintained she had not been drinking that night.

“She said her friend had been sick so that’s why she drove the car,” Mr Youds said. “She didn’t leave any details [after the crash] as she didn’t have a pen or paper.

“At the time of driving she was anxious as her friend was sick.”

Derek MacDonald, defending, said his client was unfamiliar with the roads in Chester and had a clean driving record and no previous convictions.

She is an “educated lady” and has a position of responsibility as a primary school teacher, the solicitor said.

“The matter was totally out of character,” Mr MacDonald told the court. “But it was an appalling piece of driving – we accept that.”

Magistrates sentenced her to 12 weeks in prison, suspended for a year, and made her the subject of a curfew on Friday and Saturdays between 7pm and 7am for eight weeks.

Thompson was also banned from driving for 15 months and will have to take an extended retest before she can get behind the wheel again.

She must pay £300 in compensation to the owner of the damaged car as well as £85 prosecution costs and a £115 victim surcharge.