A woman reversed her car, seemingly deliberately, into the front of a parked taxi, narrowly missing its driver who was stood on the pavement.

Charlotte Finley came out of a shop on North Road in Cardigan at 10.30pm in the evening on June 4 last year.

CCTV footage taken from outside the shop shows the gardener reversing twice into the front of a taxi parked on the road behind her vehicle.

The owner of the taxi, who walked down the road on foot, can then be seen remonstrating with Finley through the open door of her car.

She then reversed a third time at speed and seemingly deliberately into the front of the taxi, narrowly missing the taxi driver with the open door of her vehicle, before driving off. She caused £500 worth of damage to the taxi.

The court heard that the taxi driver had parked near to his home and was walking towards his vehicle when he saw it shunted back twice.

When he confronted Finley she said "you are not in the taxi rank" before forcefully reversing into his vehicle, forcing him to move out of the way to avoid being hit by her door.

Finley, 37, of St Dogmaels, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and criminal damage at the earliest opportunity and was sentenced at Swansea Crown Court today (Wednesday, April 10).

In mitigation, barrister Jonathan Tarrant directed the judge’s attention to a pre-sentence report which stated that Finley was fairly isolated in her social circumstances and under some pressure at the time.

He said that there was no evidence that alcohol had played a part in the incident.

The court heard that Finley had ten previous convictions, one for criminal damage as a juvenile and two drink-driving offences in 2007 and 2011.

“When the owner [of the taxi] appears you drive what appears to be deliberately into the car. It must have been an upsetting incident for the car owner,” said His Honour Judge Geraint Walters.

Judge Walters gave Finley an eight-month prison sentence for the dangerous driving with a two-month concurrent sentence for the criminal damage offence. Both sentences were suspended for two years.

He disqualified Finley from driving for a year, after which she will have to retake her test.

She will also have to pay a £114 victim surcharge and undertake 20 days of rehabilitation activity and 150 hours of unpaid work.

“If you breach the order you will end up serving the sentence,” the judge told Finley.