A KARATE expert and one-arm wrestling champion from Cam has been convicted of breaching a restraining order which bans her from contacting the family of a police officer.

Factory worker Kay Mathias, 39, was given the order in November last year to stop her entering a village on the outskirts of Stroud for the next two years.

At Gloucester Crown Court a jury found her guilty of breaching the restraining order against the family of a police officer who cannot be named.

During the trial, police officers said they saw Mathias driving her silver Citroen C5 just before midnight on December 30 last year in the area near the officer's home.

PC Dominic McVeigh told the jury he and his colleague PC Matthew Miles had been on patrol in the village, which was not revealed, shortly before midnight. He saw a silver Citroen C5 car emerge from the road in question onto the main road.

He noted the car registration number and passed this information for checking on the national police computer.

The Citroen turned into a side road before turning around in cul-de-sac and driving off.

PC Miles told the jury he recognised the defendant, who was sitting in the driver’s seat. There was no-one else in the vehicle, he said.

Under cross-examination by Leo Goatley, defending, PC Miles said he had not seen any other vehicles driving in the area at the time.

When interviewed by police the following day, Mathias denied she had been to the road from which she was banned.

Mathias told the jury she had been for a drive on the night in question with a teenaged friend, Sam Larner, after he came to her house following an argument with his brother.

She said they were driving from Cam towards Stroud when she decided to show Sam the house where her friend lived.

She realised she was being followed by the police and turned off the main road into a side road and then into a cul-de-sac. The police car came right up to her car, she said.

"This was a good opportunity to hold me in position but they didn’t and allowed me to drive on," Mathias said.

She said she was surprised to be arrested and questioned after going to the police station the following day, as pre-arranged, to collect some property.

After the jury found her guilty, the court was told of her previous convictions, which included being found in possession of an offensive weapon, and other incidents included being drunk and disorderly and jumping in front of a police car.

In March 2011, she pleaded guilty to stepping in front of a patrol car on the Ebley bypass in Stroud on and shining a torch at the two officers inside.

Sentencing her to pay £250 and £500 in costs within six months, Judge William Hart said: "Had the police officers been thirty seconds down the road they would not have seen you.

"For the last year you have not got into further trouble which is encouraging."