A hit-and-run driver left a man so seriously injured in the road he was in a coma for two weeks.

But even though her victim is still suffering more than a year after he was mowed down, the driver, Rebecca Barber, 24, has been spared jail.

The judge handed Barber a nine-month jail sentence, suspended for 18 months, but told her it was an “exceptional” sentence.

Her victim, John Gibson, was too upset to say much but told The Examiner last night that he felt “let down” by the lenient sentence.

He said: “My sons think it’s disgusting that someone can leave me to die in the road and this is all that happens to them.”

Leeds Crown Court heard Barber failed to stop after colliding with Mr Gibson near a mini roundabout after he left a Huddersfield pub.

Mr Gibson remembered checking if the road was clear as he crossed at Scar Lane, Milnsbridge, but then nothing until coming to in hospital a fortnight later with multiple fractures including to his legs, ribs, clavicle and coccyx.

Tom Storey prosecuting said Mr Gibson, 36, a sales representative, spent five weeks in hospital and is still, more than a year later, having physiotherapy and facing further surgery.

He has also still not been able to resume his £30,000 a year job.

Mr Gibson was run over outside The Royal pub in Milnsbridge in the early hours of April 4 last year.

A witness described seeing him “flung up into the air” as a car struck him and drove on.

The father of two sons – known as Gibbie to friends and family – suffered critical injuries and was on life-support at Leeds General Infirmary.

The court heard at around 3.45am police discovered Barber asleep at the wheel of her car which had the lights switched on not far away in Radcliffe Road.

She was wearing pyjamas and no socks or shoes and smelt of intoxicants and alcohol and was difficult to rouse.

When officers did manage to do so she was crying and sobbing in her hands saying: “I didn’t mean to hit him, oh my God I didn’t mean to hit him.”

After publicity about the incident in the Examiner, Mr Storey said a woman who had been Barber’s passenger at the time of the collision came forward and spoke to the police.

She said she and Barber had known each other since school but had become friends through using M-cat.

That night she and others had been at Barber’s home drinking vodka and lemonade and Barber had been flirting with a man by phone.

She had hoped that man would come round and when he did not they got into her car to drive to his home.

The woman said she was quite frightened by the manner of Barber’s driving and when they got to the mini roundabout at Scar Lane, she drove on the wrong side and she became aware somebody had struck the windscreen.

Barber had driven on but pulled over at a junction and phoned a man who came and collected them both and they went back to his house where they had more to drink.

When she woke up later she said Barber had gone and she assumed had returned to her car.

Andrew Dallas, representing Barber, said the Crown accepted there was no excessive speed involved nor was she over the drink drive limit at the time of the collision, although it was accepted she would have been affected by alcohol to a degree.

He said her state of collapse when she was found was as a result of drink and drugs taken after the collision and her reaction to what had happened.

He said she was extremely remorseful for her behaviour. She was someone with her own background and psychological issues which had contributed to her not stopping at the scene. She was trying to complete her degree through the Open University while working as a cleaner.

He handed in 34 references on Barber’s behalf and urged the court to show her mercy.

Barber, of Royds Avenue, Linthwaite, admitted dangerous driving, failing to stop after an accident and failing to report the accident.

She wept as she was given a nine- month jail sentence, suspended for 18 months with supervision, 125 hours unpaid work and a high level activity programme.

She was also disqualified from driving for 18 months and ordered to take a retest.

Recorder Toby Wynn told her: “Nothing that you or I can do can undo the harm you caused back in April last year to Mr Gibson.

“You caused him to be in a coma for two weeks, he faced life-threatening injuries and sustained life-changing injuries and it is not an exaggeration that he will bear the consequences of your actions for the rest of his life.”

He said only someone who had read the psychological report on her would understand the exceptional sentence he was imposing but he had taken account of her difficult and disturbing childhood and her problems since.

Mr Gibson’s ex-wife Michelle Whittall, who last year criticised the police after she was told a six day delay in launching an investigation into the incident was due to an officer being on leave, said the family was shocked that Barber had not been jailed.

She said: “John’s got damage for life.

“It’s very lenient for what she’s done to him.

“His sons are so upset – that woman left their father for dead in the road.

“If a passer-by hadn’t come along he still might have been there in the morning.

“His youngest son Jake is heartbroken.”