Katie Price, 43, arrives at court for sentencing for drink-driving near her Sussex home

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Katie Price was today spared jail for drink-driving after crashing her car while disqualified following a vodka binge as she was let off with a suspended prison sentence and two-year ban, in her ninth driving offence.

The former glamour model narrowly avoided being sent to prison after she successfully completed a stint at The Priory rehab clinic and stayed out of trouble following a previous hearing three months ago.

Price was sentenced at Crawley Magistrates’ Court this afternoon, three months after she flipped her BMW on its side on a country lane near her home in West Sussex on September 28 at 6.20am.

A drugs wipe gave a positive reading for cocaine and a roadside breath test taken by Price after the accident was positive for alcohol – and it was claimed that Price was going out for more drugs after an all-night binge.

Price admitted drink-driving, driving while disqualified and driving without insurance at court, one day after telling police: ‘I took drugs, I should not be driving, I admit it all’ following the crash on the B2135 near Partridge Green.

Today, Price – who had been going to visit a friend at the time – was given a sentence of 16 weeks suspended for 12 months, 100 hours of unpaid work, 20 sessions of rehabilitation work with probation services, and a two-year driving ban. She will also pay £213 in costs. The court was told that she already owes the court £7,358. 

Prosecutors dropped a drug-driving charge after the mother-of-five’s guilty drink-driving plea. Price, 43, was previously warned she faced jail – but her sentencing was adjourned so she could attend The Priory.

The former Page 3 star, who had already been banned from driving on five separate occasions before today, was discharged from The Priory in November and jetted off to Las Vegas with her fiancé Carl Woods. 

District Judge Amanda Kelly told how she could not jail Price because the model had a ‘legitimate expectation’ she would avoid going to prison after attending rehab following the previous hearing in September. 

She said Price was ‘extremely lucky’ magistrates deferred her sentence – and ‘if they hadn’t, you may well be losing your liberty today’. Ms Kelly also told her: ‘Not everybody has the luxury of being able to check into The Priory. It seems you think you are above the law. 

‘The public may be appalled to know I’m not able to send you to prison today to spend Christmas behind bars. The law says you have a legitimate expectation you will not be sent to prison today.’

Dressed in white tracksuit bottoms, a grey sweatshirt, tracksuit bottoms and blue coat, Price hung her head and looked tearful as the judge slammed her, telling her: ‘You deserve to spend Christmas behind bars.’ 

The judge said: ‘You are extremely lucky. When you chose to get behind the wheel of the car that night you showed no consideration for others.  

‘You could have killed someone’s partner, child, parent or friend. You have one of the worst driving records I have seen. Your actions meant all three emergency services had to use up their resources to deal with you. If that was not bad enough you were disqualified from driving at the time.’

After telling her she would not be going to prison, the judge told Price: ‘If you breach this order, you will go to prison. If you don’t turn up or do unpaid work, in all likelihood you will go to prison.’

Jon Karani, prosecuting, told the court today that Price fell into the passenger seat nearest the ground after rolling her car. He added that Price told police she had been banned from driving four times, when in fact it was five.

He said: ‘She told police ‘I know I shouldn’t have been driving but I did, I’ve been banned four times’.’ Roadside tests showed she had been drinking and had taken cocaine. Mr Karani said: ‘She said ‘I don’t care, it’s fine’.’ She also told police in hospital: ‘I’m guilty, I had alcohol, I took drugs, I shouldn’t be driving.’

Price will be back in court again next month for enforcement action on the unpaid fines. Defending her, Joseph Harrington asked the court for a short driving ban. He said: ‘She had a crash. ‘It’s clear she was distressed and upset. She was taken straight to the Priory and complied with them there. This is a lady with an awful lot going on.’

The night before returning to court, Katie posted a video online of her son Harvey looking forward to Christmas with his mother. The driving ban Katie Price was serving when she rolled her BMW was due to end today.

Mr Harrington said her finances were so disorganised and chaotic that a £7.50 toll for using the Dartford Crossing had escalated into a £1,400 debt due to her failure to deal with it. He added: ‘She has five children, is the only consistent adult in  Harvey’s life, has four other children aged six to 16 and her mother is terminally ill with cancer.’

Debbie Jones, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said Price lost control of her car and crashed, adding: ‘She was located trapped in the vehicle by a witness who stayed with her until the emergency services arrive. She gave a positive roadside breath test and a positive reading for cocaine.’

Price accepted full responsibility and apologised for the crash in a statement released by her family, which said: ‘Kate acknowledges and takes full responsibility for her actions. She knows they were wrong and apologises.’

But John Scruby, a trustee of the Campaign Against Drink Driving charity, told MailOnline today: ‘I’m absolutely gobsmacked, I just cannot believe it, I really can’t. It’s unbelievable, it really is.

‘It’s a smack in the teeth for anybody else – the last figures we received were that over 270 people each day are in court all over the UK for drink driving. They’re going to prison and not getting a suspended sentence. 

‘It’s completely the wrong message, and it’s a kick in the teeth when a responsible person like a magistrate can look at that and think it’s worthy of a 16-week suspended sentence.’

Mr Scruby, a former traffic officer who attended more than 30 drink-drive deaths, added: ‘I’d like to think that anybody else that was in there would have been looking at a custodial sentence for what she’s done.

‘Sixteen weeks is way, way, way below the recommended min sentence, and I don’t know how the magistrates can look at themselves tonight and say they’ve done their job, because they haven’t. She’s very, very lucky, very lucky indeed – and there will be another time, unless this spoilt little princess grows up.’ 

And The AA’s head of roads policy Jack Cousens told MailOnline today: ‘Around 1million UK drivers are uninsured. We hope this sends a clear message to those that drive outside the law. With Christmas police drink-drive campaigns in full swing, today’s sentence is a timely reminder of what happens when drunk drivers get caught.’ 

Friends told MailOnline this week that Price had been ‘terrified’ she could spend Christmas behind bars, saying it was a ‘reality she has never faced before’ and she was concerned about the ‘potential reaction of her children’.  

She arrived at the court earlier today in the back seat of a black Porsche sports car, wearing a face mask and carrying a designer handbag. Price then dropped her phone while walking into the court before picking it up.

Mr Woods was also at the court this afternoon to support her from the public gallery – and arrived carrying a coffee along with her stepfather Paul, a 59-year-old fence erector, who was carrying two more.

Price has been banned five times before. She was banned in February 2018 for six months after getting 12 points on her licence. She was also banned for three months and fined in January 2019 after driving while disqualified.

The model was banned again in September 2019 for three months for drink driving. In July 2019 she was banned for 18 months. The two-year-ban she was serving when she rolled her BMW was imposed on December 2019.

Officers responded to the crash on September 28 before Price was arrested and taken to hospital. Tests showed Price had 66 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath – nearly double the legal limit of 35mcg.

She also tested positive for cocaine on a wipe. An image shared by police from the scene showed a car flipped on its side, and after the crash her family expressed concern for her wellbeing.

In a statement from the family shared on Price’s Instagram account after the incident, they said: ‘As a family we have for some time been concerned about Kate’s wellbeing and overall mental health. 

‘Today our worst fears nearly came true. As a family we have been and will continue to help Kate get the help she needs. We hope that she will realise that she cannot battle her issues alone.’

At that hearing, her sentencing was adjourned on the condition that Price have treatment at the Priory Centre, not commit any further offences, and be banned from driving in the interim. 

The Priory in Roehampton, South West London, is the group’s flagship hospital where former clients include Lily Allen, Johnny Depp and Amy Winehouse. It costs around £6,800 a week.   

Last month, public records revealed Price and her partner Carl Woods, a car salesman, had obtained a marriage licence in Las Vegas.

Price arrived in the city, which bills itself as the marriage capital of the world, the week the US reopened its borders to tourists.

Yesterday friends revealed how Price had been ‘terrified’ of the thought of going to prison. 

A friend told MailOnline: ‘The devastating reality of her situation is starting to hit home and Katie is terrified. 

‘It’s a reality she has never faced before, which is understandably unnerving. It’s not just herself who she’s worried about, it’s the potential reaction of her children.

‘She can’t stop thinking about it and is full of dread, but has been planning as if she is going to have a normal Christmas for the kids as a distraction.’

As well as spending time in rehab and in Las Vegas with Mr Woods, she also flew to Belgium earlier this week to have further cosmetic surgery, where she allegedly had her 13th operation on her breasts.  

Price has a long history of driving offences, dating back to 2003, when she escaped a speeding charge after police failed to arrest her within 12 weeks of allegedly clocking 70mph in a 40mph zone in her Range Rover.

In 2008, after talking on the mobile phone while driving on April 18, Price landed three penalty points.

The year after, Price failed to provide the identity of the driver after her car was caught speeding in a 30mph zone and was later handed four penalty points after being clocked at 99mph and was handed four points on her licence.

In 2009 Price was convicted for failing to be in proper control of her horsebox after veering into another lane in February 2010 and was given three points on her licence, bringing her total to 10.

Then in December that year she was banned from driving for six months after doing 83mph in a 70mph zone in her home county of West Sussex. 

Two years later, Katie was disqualified for 12 months for failing to respond to two speeding tickets in September.

In 2018, Katie landed a six-month ban in February 2018 for speeding after totting up 12 penalty points for speeding. In July that year, photos emerged of her driving while still banned.

Then in October she was arrested on suspicion of drink driving and spent 13 hours in custody after crashing into a VW Golf and a hedge on a gated estate at 2am.

In 2019 she was given a three-month ban for driving while disqualified in January of that year.

And then in October, Price was banned from driving for a further 18 months for failing to inform police who was behind the wheel of her pink Range Rover during a crash in Bexley, south east London.  

The smash came a day after Price said being disqualified from driving meant she could not visit her disabled son Harvey at his residential college in Gloucestershire.

She told ITV’s Good Morning Britain at the time: ‘Harvey’s in Cheltenham now, he keeps ringing me saying, ‘Mummy I miss you, I need your kisses and cuddles’, so it is quite hard.

‘Because obviously I don’t get my licence back until December, so I can’t just whizz in the car down there and it’s not close.’

Mr Woods said he will ‘always be there’ for the ‘rough diamond’, writing on Instagram after the crash: ‘Relationships are tested, people test each other.

‘But when you love someone like I love Katie, you enjoy the highs and good times together. And that bond is tested during the low and difficult times together.

‘Katie is a rough diamond. She has her imperfections however they make her perfect to me. She just needs that extra help to be polished.

‘The sunlight will shine through her once again and the sparkles that she brings to everyone will return. I love you Katie 100 per cent. My dolly, always here, always will be.’