A WOMAN claimed to be her cousin after she was caught driving while disqualified for a second time.

Officers pulled Rebecca Brown over in Fair Oak Road, months after she was banned from getting behind the wheel for 20 months for failing to provide a specimen.

When asked by the police for her details, the 27-year-old pretended to be her cousin.

Her lies were exposed after the cousin went to Portswood Police Station querying a police document she had been sent.

Southampton Crown Court heard this wasn’t the first time the former receptionist had been found driving while disqualified.

The court was told that Brown had opted to drive despite the ban because her employers had moved to Whiteley and she was unsure how else she could get there.

Prosecutor Martyn Booth said it would difficult to confirm exactly how many times she had driven without authority, other than the two times she had been caught.

Keeley Harvey, mitigating, said that just before she was originally banned in 2017, Brown’s life had “turned to chaos”.

She told the court that a friend of hers had committed suicide which had left her with mental health problems and depression.

Miss Harvey said Brown didn’t know how else to support her family if she couldn’t get to work.

In sentencing, Christopher Parker QC said: “When you were banned from driving you should have stopped.

“If it meant finding other work then that is what you should have done... this is a serious offence.”

Brown, of Camborne Close, Bishopstoke, pleaded guilty to two charges of driving while disqualified and one count of perverting the course of justice.

She was sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, and received a two-year driving ban.

Brown was also ordered to pay £400 costs.