A SINGLE mother from Huddersfield who featured in a police campaign to track down court dodgers has been jailed for a year.

Nanoushka Harrison, 24, of Jade Place, Fartown, pleaded guilty to a mugging back in November, 2002.

But she went on the run after failing to turn up for her sentence at Bradford Crown Court four months later.

Judge Roger Scott was told yesterday that Harrison had spent some time in London, where she got a job.

But after returning to Huddersfield she handed herself in when her photo featured in the police crackdown.

The court heard that in June, 2002, Harrison, who was then a mother- of-two, had a crack cocaine habit costing up to £100 a day.

Harrison and an accomplice, Jane Hargreaves, 39, had decided to "tax" a woman as she walked along Northgate in Almondbury in order to get money for drugs.

Prosecutor Ben Crosland said the two women began questioning the victim, then grabbed her shoulder bag.

The victim, Yvonne Cross, described being punched and kicked during a struggle with the duo before they made off with her bag.

Barrister Andrew Wilson, for Harrison, said that at the time of the robbery his client was a woman of no previous convictions. He urged Judge Scott to take account of the positive changes in her life over the last two years.

He said she had managed to rid herself of her drug habit and had completed a course which meant she could take a degree at Huddersfield University in September.

Mr Wilson said Harrison's two older children no longer lived with her, but she did have the care of her eight-and-a-half month-old child.

He said that in the ordinary course of events Harrison could not complain if she was jailed. But it would be wrong for the court to ignore the changes in her life over the last two years.

But Judge Scott said the courts had been trying to sentence Harrison since the offence. There was little distinction between her and Hargreaves, who was jailed for 15 months in March, 2003.

The judge said Harrison only gave herself up because her picture had been in the papers and she thought better of her position.

He added: "Courts have been encouraged to send people to custody who don't turn up for sentence or trial, so I will pass a sentence of custody consecutive to the robbery sentence."

He jailed Harrison for 10 months for the robbery and for a further two months after she also admitted breaking bail by failing to attend court in March, 2003.

"I'm sorry I have had to lock you up,"' he told Harrison. "It would not be fair in the circumstances not to do so."