A mum who caused the death of her two young sons in a head-on crash after knowingly driving with an underinflated tyre has avoided jail.

Amy Sheppard, 29, received a 20-month sentence suspended for two years at Lincoln Crown Court on Friday.

Judge James House KC said the ‘ability to excercise mercy’ and not send Sheppard – a nursery nurse – to prison was part of his judicial functions.

The badly underinflated rear tyre of Sheppard’s Vauxhall Astra caused the car to ‘fishtail’ on a bend and cross into the wrong carriageway, hitting an Audi coming in the opposite direction.

The driver of the Audi, his wife and her brother were all seriously hurt in the crash, and were treated in hospital for life-threatening injuries.

Sheppard was also seriously hurt, while her sons Louie, eight and Mas

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