AN insurance professional who hit three cars while driving her car without insurance when she was dashing home with medication has been fined.

Natalie Hyner pleaded guilty to driving her BMW 1 series without due care and attention, without insurance and without a valid MOT certificate following the incident in the early hours of December 21 last year. She also pleaded guilty to a further charge of failing to report the matter to the police when she came before magistrates sitting in Swindon on Tuesday afternoon.

The court heard that 29-year-old Hyner had previously been involved in a minor bump in her car which led to her own car insurance rocketing to £7,000 a year. Faced with these costs she made the decision to declare the vehicle SORN and cancelled her insurance.

But in the early hours of December 21 the Carver Close resident realised she was running low on her medication so made the decision to drive to her mother’s home to collect some. On her drive home she found herself turning into Ermin Street which was controlled by a bus lane.

It was then that she collided with a Ford Fiesta being reversed which led to her also colliding with a VW Polo and a VW Golf as well.

Keith Ballinger, prosecuting, told the court that Hyner had stopped and appeared to be going to exchange her details with the driver of the Fiesta but then got back into her car and drove off.

Defending her, Catherine Thornton said Hyner had been through an awful lot in the last couple of years, having worked in a high powered job for an insurance company. But matters took a turn for the worse for her when she found her health deteriorating before having what she described as a nervous breakdown.

She said: “On that night she had a minor anxiety attack and realised she had almost run out of medication. She drove to her mother’s as she had the same medication. This was a mistake.

“Unfortunately in her haste having driven into the bus lane a gentleman started reversing towards her. She tells me he reversed into her and pushed her into two other cars. She accepts she shouldn’t have been on the road.

“The next morning she realises what she has done and she reports it to the police, she didn’t go straight to the police station and she does regret this.

“She is a professional young lady, to whom a lot of things have happened and she has now hit rock bottom here before you today.”

Sentencing her, chairman of the bench Paul Morris ordered she pay a fine of £300 for the matter of driving without insurance and said that six penalty points would be added to her licence. She was also fined a further £100 for driving without due care and attention and £50 for failing to report the crash. Hyner must also pay a victim surcharge of £30 and court costs of £50.