Teen led police in a Keystone Cops caper

But Shareen Callan escaped being jailed after pleading guilty to dangerous driving, not having a full licence or insurance and failing to stop after the crash.

Callan, 19, of Sanders Court, Bridge Street, Warwick, was given a nine-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months by a judge at Warwick Crown Court and ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work.

Prosecutor Andrew Tucker said that at 1.30am on November 24 police were on Kenilworth Road, Leamington, when a Ford Fiesta crossed a junction ahead of them with no lights on.

They put their blue light on to get it to stop – but Callan accelerated to 60mph in the 30 zone.

She went through a red light, took a right turn into Binswood Avenue, cutting the corner and causing the rear of the car to do a fishtail-style wiggle.

Callan went the wrong way round the island at the junction with Cubbington Road to head back to Kenilworth Road and on to Lillington Avenue.

She then drove along Cubbington Road, Lillington, still at 60mph, and at the junction with Crown Way Callan made a right turn at such speed that she mounted the kerb and drove along the pavement for 30 metres before rejoining the road.

The car was so out of control that when she drove onto the car park of the nearby Tesco she smashed into the store’s brick wall.

Callan, whose brother was in the passenger seat, got out and ran off but was arrested nearby.

She said she had been driving her brother to a chip shop, although neither of them had a full licence, and it was found she was also uninsured because she had been relying on her mother to get it, which had not happened.

Recorder Sam Mainds told Callan’s solicitor Jamie Strong: “Driving like this in an attempt to throw the police off in a Keystone Cops way is something I am not impressed with.”

Mr Strong said Callan had had a difficult background, going from one foster carer to another, but by the age of 18 she had achieved some independence and was undertaking a college course and working on a casual basis.

Recorder Mainds told Callan: “Your driving was appalling.

“The number of people who could have been severely injured must have been considerable. Even at 1.30 in the morning, there are still people walking around and you took no account of them.

“This driving, of its type, was among the worst I’ve seen – and I’ve been doing this for longer than you’ve been alive.”