A DRINK-DRIVER went the wrong way on a motorway slip road after fleeing the scene of a pub brawl.

Sylwia Niedzwiedz was drinking with her boyfriend and two men at the Crazy Bear in Stadhampton when a fight broke out.

The three men then urged the 26-year-old to drive them and their dog away as she had had the least to drink, Oxford Crown Court heard on Wednesday.

But she drove on to the M40 slipway at junction 7 the wrong way.

She realised her mistake and waited for a gap before joining the flow of traffic but later crashed the blue Vauxhall into a roundabout at the Oxford Services at Junction 8a.

When police breathalysed her she was found to have 91 micrograms of alcohol in 100ml of breath – above the legal limit of 35 micrograms.

Niedzwiedz, a cleaner who has lived in the UK for seven years, admitted the charges of dangerous driving, drink-driving and driving without third party insurance.

She was given a six-month prison sentence suspended for a year and banned from driving for a year.

She was also ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid community work.

Prosecuting, Wendy Hewitt said: “This defendant was encouraged to drive the car away from the scene of the assault.”

She said police in a patrol car saw Niedzwiedz, of Braemar Avenue, North London, drive past “no entry” signs and down the slip road on the afternoon of April 8.

She added: “She (Niedzwiedz) said she had seen the police car but did not stop because she was scared.

“She understood what she had done was dangerous.”

Lisa Bald, defending, said it had been a “stupid and reckless” decision.

She said: “She is extremely fortunate there was no injury caused to any other person and no other vehicle was involved.”

But she said Niedzwiedz, who heard proceedings through an interpreter, had no previous convictions and had admitted the crimes at the earliest opportunity.

Judge Mary Jane Mowat, sentencing, said Niedzwiedz had been pressured into driving and she had not intentionally driven dangerously.

She said: “I accept that was not deliberate.

“But it was a mistake born out of panic and drink.”

The judge also passed a wasted costs order against court contractor Applied Language Solutions after the firm failed to send translators to two earlier court hearings.

The company was ordered to pay £500 towards prosecution costs, £160.75 to the defence, and £16.50 for Niedzwiedz’s bus fare.