A spurned lover who armed herself before driving 70 miles to demand the return of £250 has avoided going to jail because of her six-year-old daughter.

Furious Carol Sanderson claimed her ex-boyfriend owed her the cash and made the journey determined to force a showdown.

But Canterbury Crown Court heard she took a knife on the journey from her home in Hastings to the house in Athelstan Road, Margate.

There she barged into the property brandishing the knife, took clothes before standing on the bonnet of a car to smash the windscreen.

The 37-year-old former teaching assistant was told by the judge that people arm themselves with weapons usually go immediately to jail.

Recorder Jonathan Higgs QC told her: “Knives kill people. I find it quite extraordinary that you have tried to justify your actions.

“I am not going to impose an immediate jail sentence because of your little child.”

Probation officer Linda Jeacock told the judge: “She said her plan was to go to his home, bag up some of his clothes and wait in a nearby pub.

“She said if she got her money she would give him back his clothes. She said she took a knife because she was scared of him, which I did not accept.”

After sending her former lover a text message, she arrived at the property and smashed the windscreen of his car “out of revenge..thinking that she was the victim”.

Sanderson pleaded guilty to having a knife in public and damaging property and was given a four month sentence suspended for two years and do 40 hours of unpaid work.