A JILTED wife who caused thousands of pounds of damage after smashing her car into a building in a jealous rage has been spared jail.
Tracey Ann Orton, who ran a fish and chip shop in Bransholme with her husband Kevin, was furious when she discovered he had moved in with another woman.
She had believed they were going to get back together.
In a fit of rage, Orton, 42, drove to Tower Park Mews in east Hull and crashed her car into a garage next to the home of her husband's new partner, Sarah Carroll.
The crash was so loud pedestrians from nearby Holderness Road ran to see what the commotion was.
Orton, of Knightley Way, Kingswood, had to be pulled from the wreckage but was uninjured.
The outbuilding belonged to Hull firm Davenham Trust Ltd.
Some bicycles in the shed were damaged.
The damage to the building was estimated to cost £12,290 and the bikes damaged were worth £200.
The Honorary Recorder of Hull and the East Riding Judge Michael Mettyear, told Orton her conduct deserved jail but deferred sentence to see if she could stay out of trouble.
He warned her if she was unable to put the relationship behind her she could face jail.
She has now been sentenced to a community order.
Judge Mettyear told her: "I promised you when you were before me on the last occasion that if you stayed out of trouble I would not send you to prison, even though there were factors in the case indicative that such a sentence would be appropriate.
"But you stayed out of trouble, you kept your side of the bargain and I will keep mine.
"If you fail to do the work or don't do it properly then you will be brought back before the court and resentenced and it is almost inevitable you will be sent to prison."
Orton has been ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.
In the weeks leading up to the crash, she had sent abusive text messages and had confrontations with her former partner.
She pleaded guilty to destroying property when the case came to court.
Prosecutor Phillip Evans said: "The defendant was married to, and was separated from, a man called Kevin Orton.
"The defendant had not come to terms with it and shortly after he started a relationship with Sarah Carroll.
"That had led in the past to abusive text messages and personal confrontations.
"Orton drove her vehicle into the outbuilding and it had to be demolished.
"The Mews is where Sarah Carroll lives. Her property is adjacent to this building. We say Orton was making a gesture, an unwelcome gesture towards Carroll."
Orton pleaded guilty on the basis she did not deliberately drive her car at anyone.
Her former partner had been walking down the street when she mounted the pavement and crashed the car.
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