Spears faces jail over 'hit and run'

Published on Sunday 23 September 2007 00:04

TROUBLED pop princess Britney Spears is facing up to six months in jail after being involved in a hit-and-run incident.

According to Californian prosecutors, Spears is alleged to have struck a vehicle in a Los Angeles car park then driven away.

The LA Police Department launched an investigation after the owner of the car made a complaint.

"The incident was captured on videotape," said Nick Velasquez, a spokesman for the Los Angeles city attorney's office. Velasquez said an investigation confirmed the driver involved was the singer, and a subsequent check with the California Department of Motor Vehicles showed she has no licence to drive in the state.

Spears was sent a letter on Friday informing her of the charges. Charges will be brought against the singer at the Los Angeles Superior Court on October 10.

Because of the relatively minor nature of the charges, she will not be required to attend the hearing.

Despite this, legal experts believe Spears could, if convicted, face up to six months' imprisonment along with a hefty series of fines.

In a video of the incident, Spears's Mercedes-Benz convertible is apparently seen grazing a Mercedes estate car as the pop singer attempts to steer into an empty space. The video seems to show a small dog on Spears's lap. Afterward, Spears is seen apparently inspecting the vehicles.

Kim Robard-Rifkin, a 59-year-old registered nurse, learned it was Spears who had apparently hit her car through a video posted on a celebrity website. She said she was "sort of amused and sort of shocked" when she learned Spears was the source of the damage, adding that she had expected to hear from the star's camp.

"I simply want my car fixed, the same as I would fix somebody's car if I had done that," Robard-Rifkin said.

The charges come three days after a Los Angeles County Court commissioner said there was evidence that Spears was "a habitual, frequent and continuous" user of drugs and alcohol, and ordered mandatory random twice-weekly drug tests.

Commissioner Scott M Gordon, ruling in a dispute between Spears and her former husband, Kevin Federline, over custody of their two children, also said that the pop star must meet with a parenting coach.

Her management firm recently dropped her, and her performance at this year's MTV video music awards was widely panned.

The performer's legal and social woes are a far cry from her earlier wholesome image as a child presenter of The Mickey Mouse Club.

Spears is far from the only good-girl-gone-bad in tinsel town. Socialite Paris Hilton spent time in an LA jail in the summer after admitting driving while on probation on a drink-driving charge. Troubled actress Lindsay Lohan is also facing being imprisoned for a similar charge.