A WOMAN has been fined for the driving that gave a man life-threatening injuries and put him in hospital for weeks, York Crown Court heard.

German citizen Ingeborn Wesseler, then 60, was driving a van on the wrong side of the road when she crashed a van into a car coming the opposite way on the A162, York Magistrates Court heard in 2020.

She refused to return to the UK to be sentenced for causing serious injury by dangerous driving for which the maximum sentence is five years in jail.

Eventually, three years after the incident near Tadcaster, she appeared before a judge in Germany - and was fined.

The car driver was in hospital for weeks with internal injuries and Wesseler was also seriously hurt in the collision on the A162 flyover above the A64 between 5am and 6am on September 22, 2019.

She returned to her home in Werl, North Rhine Westphalia, Germany, eight days after the crash and before the case was brought to court.

Wesseler pleaded guilty at York Magistrates Court via a video link from Germany to causing serious injury by dangerous driving and her case was committed to York Crown Court where defendants have to attend in person to be sentenced unless they are in custody.

But she didn't appear before the English court, her lawyers first telling the English court that she couldn’t travel because of coronavirus restrictions and then that her health didn’t permit her to travel.

After extensive international negotiations involving the Crown Prosecution Service and the German prosecutors and German judicial system, the case was transferred to Germany to be heard in front of a German judge.

Adam Keenaghan for the CPS told York Crown Court under German law, the equivalent offence to what Wesseler had done was causing negligent bodily harm. Wesseler had pleaded guilty to that offence and had been fined 1800 Euros.

As she had been dealt with under German law for her offence, Judge Simon Hickey agreed Wesseler could vacate her English plea and the English case against her was then dropped.

In 2020, Clive Bergen for Wesseler told York Magistrates Court she knew she had to drive on the left when in Britain.

She had been heading towards the ferry port when the crash occurred.

However, she had become confused, following directions on Google Maps and had momentarily lost concentration.

“For a relatively short period of time - 220 metres - she found herself on the wrong side of the road,” he said.

She was very upset and concerned for the car driver. As a nurse she knew the effect of his injuries, he said. In 2020, she was back at work and gradually increasing her hours.

York Magistrates Court heard she was heading towards Tadcaster and the car driver towards Sherburn-in-Elmet when the crash occurred.

The maximum sentence for causing serious injury by dangerous driving in England is five years' imprisonment.