A BEAUTICIAN from the Pontypool area has avoided an immediate prison sentence after admitting assaulting a police officer and a series of driving offences.

Nicole Morris, 31, was sentenced at Newport Magistrates' Court on Thursday.

The court was told police were alerted to a witness report of a woman looking "hammered" and driving off in a vehicle in the early hours of July 1.

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Later, a police officer saw the vehicle "swerving in the road", the prosecution said.

The car was stopped and the driver identified herself as Morris. She was described as "intoxicated and agitated" by the officer and refused to provide a breath sample.

Morris, of The Woodlands, Penygarn was arrested and taken to a police station, where she was "obstructive" to officers' attempts to gain a breath sample, the prosecution said.

Then, Morris pushed a female police officer in the back as she was being placed in a cell.

Oliver Jenkins, defending, said mother-of-three Morris was "deeply ashamed of her actions" and offered her apologies to the court.

Morris had been in a "heightened emotional state" at the time, he added, because she had attended a wake for a close friend's mother earlier that day, where she had drunk alcohol.

Mr Jenkins said Morris had "made the incredibly unwise decision to drive" to see her children, whom she missed.

At an earlier court appearance, Morris had admitted one charge of assaulting an emergency worker, one of driving without a licence, one of driving without insurance, and one of failing to provide a sample.

Sentencing Morris, the magistrate told her: "This is probably your last chance before you go to prison."

Morris was given a total prison sentence of eight weeks, suspended for one year; was banned from driving for 30 months; and must complete 16 days of rehabilitation activities.

She must also pay £213 in court costs and £50 compensation to the police officer she assaulted.