A WOMAN tried to get her sister to take her speeding ticket by offering to pay the fine and an extra fee for her troubles, a court heard.

Louise Goupillot dodged prison after a judge heard other than a single text message, she was not persistent in her demands.

Goupillot gave her sister Samantha's name when she was stopped in an uninsured Vauxhall Astra in East Cleveland in May last year.

A week later, the 31-year-old visited her sister and explained what she had done, prosecutor Sue Jacobs told Teesside Crown Court yesterday.

When a police letter arrived, the innocent Miss Goupillot was again asked to take the blame, but she wrote back to say she was not behind the wheel.

A police officer visited her home and realised she was not responsible, and when her sister was spoken to, she confessed to being the driver.

Goupillot, of High Street, Redcar, later admitted attempting to pervert the course of justice, speeding and having no insurance or licence.

Judge Howard Crowson imposed a six-month prison sentence, suspended for a year, with 80 hours of unpaid community work and £250 costs.

He told her: "I certainly almost always impose immediate prison sentences because there is the potential to undermine the entire system.

"But I am satisfied you acted without any real thought, and although you might have hoped your sister might carry on with it that wasn't because you were trying to pressure her. You were simply trying to avoid facing up to it."

Andrew McGloin, mitigating, said Goupillot was "filled with dread" as soon as she had given false details, and was not brave enough to own up.

Mr McGloin said: "She is embarrassed by her conduct, and she is sorry for the strain she has put on her sister."