Driver followed satnav “wrong way” round roundabout to Derbyshire’s A38

Angela Foster, 39, made the motoring blunder on Ripley’s busy Hartshay roundabout - where the A610 on which the defendant was driving and the A38 meet.

Chesterfield Magistrates Court heard how on November 13 at around 10.40pm police tried to signal Ms Foster, realising she was about to go “the wrong way into the A38”.

Prosecutor Andrew Conboy said: “She did a three-point turn on the sliproad - she said she was following her satnav and that’s why she made the manoeuvre she had.”

Ms Foster’s solicitor Maria Moore told magistrates: “I cannot tell you how distressed she has been by this”.

Ms Moore said her client - who was not familiar with the Ripley area - had been out with her mother for the evening on the night of the driving error.

The solicitor said the defendant had stopped off minutes before the mistake at a nearby McDonald’s.

She added: “The satnav told her to turn right out of McDonald’s - so she turned right. She corrected it herself.”

Ms Moore said her client was “genuinely shocked” when she received paperwork through the post informing her she had been charged with dangerous driving.

She said her client - who was in tears during the court proceedings - “did not hit anyone and no-one was injured.”

The court heard Ms Foster, who had been driving for four years, had a clean driving licence and was a “hardworking” woman who looked after “lots of people”.

A magistrate told her: “We can see exactly how it would have happened - we will step outside of the guidelines and deal with this by way of a financial penalty.

“You have a clean driving licence and are obviously remorseful and have an unblemished record.

“It was a single incident and it’s had an effect on you already.”

Ms Foster, of Queensway, Mansfield, admitted dangerous driving.

She was banned from driving for 12 months, fined £233, made to pay £85 court costs and a £34 victim surcharge.

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