AN 87-YEAR-OLD gran who admitted killing her husband and two others in a horror car crash today walked free from court.

Arriving at court to face three charges of causing death by dangerous driving, Joyce Beresford brandished her walking stick at a photographer.

She pleaded guilty after the prosecution agreed to downgrade the charges to causing death by careless driving.

District Judge Tim Pattinson showed the OAP leniency after hearing that one of the three people she killed was her 90 -year-old husband, Robert.

Beresford walked free with a fine and a three-year driving ban.

The court was told that the pensioner drove into the path of a car driven by a 17-year-old who had two similarily aged friends with him.

All three were injured in the crash at a junction.

Mrs Beresford's husband died as a result of the Saturday afternoon crash as did the couple's close friends, Patrick Eyre, aged 80 years and 77-year-old Heidi Eyre.

The grandmother was allowed to sit outside the dock at Basingstoke Magistrates' Court.

She remained stoically composed and emotionless as prosecutor Kerry Richardson outlined the case against her.

She told the judge: "Mrs Beresford was approaching a staggered junction when she accelerated. The driver of the other car, Alfie Bogen, was approaching from her left and collided with the rear end of Mrs Beresford's Honda Jazz. Mr Bogen's Hyundaa Getz span and began smoking heavily.

“Two of the young passengers in the Hyundai collapsed with shock and the three passengers in the Honda died.

"All three in the Hyundai received injuries."

The prosecutor also read a witness statement from Samuel Belstone, Mr Bogen’s friend, who was in the front passenger seat of the Hyundai.

He said he had suffered "survivor’s guilt" and considered suicide in the time following the horrific crash.

He said in his statement: “I just don’t feel like myself anymore and I cannot sleep because I keep playing the collision over and over in my mind. The lack of sleep has affected the rest of my life. I lost my temper through it at a colleague at work and lost my job as a result.

"I now find myself drinking every day."

Defence barrister Alistair MacDonald QC said of Mrs Beresford: “She has always accepted that she accelerated and for some reason, she failed to see the oncoming vehicle.

“The fact is she was waiting at a junction, was in no hurry and was on her way home a few yards away when she simply failed to see another car. It was her husband of 60 years who died at her side along with her closest friends.”

He told the judge that Beresford had only offered to drive that day as her friend, Mr Eyre, had already driven down from their home in Coval Gardens, East Sheen, in south-west London.

The four of them had been out for a Saturday morning drive.

Sentencing Beresford, District Judge Pattinson said: “There is no useful or practical custodial or community penalty appropriate in this case and the suggestion of a financial penalty is a useful one.

“I make clear that this is a case that I am convinced that it is right to depart from the sentencing guidelines for the simple reasons they would be contrary to the interests of justice in this case.”