A young Wodonga woman has shed tears and looked around to a supporter on being told full-time jail was inevitable over her connection to two high-speed police pursuits.
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Albury Local Court magistrate Tony Murray indicated he was just about to impose such a sentence before the woman secured a last-minute reprieve.
"Your client is definitely going to jail in my view," Mr Murray said, on ordering an updated sentence assessment report and adjourning the case to June 15.
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Defence lawyer Chirag Patel told the court he had only just received information from a Victorian community corrections worker indicating that Renee Pinkerton needed to be assessed for an intellectual disability.
Mr Patel submitted this could very well be a mitigating factor in Pinkerton's offending.
But in doing so, he told Mr Murray, he was not in any way trying to negate the "serious nature" of what Pinkerton did.
Mr Patel said Pinkerton's offending over two to three months coincided with the removal of her child from her care.
"That triggered ... her abuse of alcohol," he said, noting Pinkerton also had a history of illicit drug use.
But Mr Patel said the 29 days she spent in jail in Victoria at the same time as her Albury matters "seems to have been a wake-up call for Miss Pinkerton".
"She has not come to the attention of the authorities as she had between late December and February, on both sides of the border."
Mr Patel said he was concerned a jail term "is going to take her a number of steps back" in her rehabilitation.
The court heard previously how Pinkerton, 22, was in a car that reached speeds of up to 140km/h in an 80km/h stretch of the Riverina Highway early on December 27.
Pinkerton said she was trying to get a 14-year-old missing girl "away from domestic violence".
She refused to name the driver.
Police identified her as the driver of the same car as the vehicle hit speeds of about 160km/h in an 80km/h speed zone on February 12 about 7.30pm.
She earlier pleaded guilty to charges including police pursuit.
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