A woman who rammed a car into the front doors of a busy Bradford nightspot has been released from custody in time for her birthday.

Nicola Richardson, who was 34 today, has already spent about five months on remand awaiting her sentence following the terrifying incident at the Livingstones pub last June.

More than 400 customers were inside the pub late on a Sunday night when Richardson and some others became involved in an incident with the door staff.

A previous hearing at the city's Crown Court was told that after the disturbance moved to the foyer of the pub, Richardson, who had been drinking and using cocaine, went outside and jumped into the driver's seat of a Vauxhall Cavalier.

She was caught on CCTV footage deliberately ramming the front doors, and after reversing the car she could be seen driving at the doors again.

It was estimated that the damage to the doors totalled about £8,000. When Richardson gave a blood sample after her arrest, she was found to have alcohol and cocaine in her system. She later told police she could not recall driving into the doors of the pub.

In August last year, Richardson, of Mark Street, West Bowling, pleaded guilty before the magistrates to offences of dangerous driving, driving while unfit through drugs, and criminal damage.

She also accepted she was not insured at the time and was driving without a licence.

Magistrates committed the case to the Crown Court for sentence, but it has been adjourned on previous occasions while psychiatric reports on Richardson were completed.

Yesterday Judge Geoffrey Kamil decided he had a stark choice between imposing a jail term of about 15 months - of which she had already served almost half - or making her the subject of a community rehabilitation order.

Her barrister, Jayne Beckett, told the judge that friends of Richardson were prepared to support her in the community and one of them was able to provide accommodation if she was released from custody.

Judge Kamil also heard from a probation officer that staff at New Hall women's prison, where Richardson has been remanded, were "optimistic and very positive" about her.

The judge said after reading the various reports and taking account of the five months she had already served on remand, the most appropriate sentence was a two-year community rehabilitation order.

Richardson was also banned from driving for the next two years and must take an extended test. Judge Kamil said he was not making any orders against her for compensation or costs bearing in mind the time she had spent in custody.