Sheree Bolton, 27, of East Corrimal, won her appeal to keep her driver's licence, claiming the 12-month disqualification was too severe for the offence she had committed, and would cripple her young family.

In what he called "the interests of justice", Judge Paul Conlon dismissed the matter without penalty.

"I'm stunned with the result and so grateful the judge showed some compassion," Ms Bolton said afterwards.

"I made a mistake but it will never happen again."

Ms Bolton, a green P-plater, was charged with driving while suspended in August after her car clipped another at a McDonald's drive-through at Fairy Meadow.

She had originally been suspended for speeding.

Under mandatory sentencing laws, a lower court magistrate had only two options - disqualify her for 12 months or dismiss the matter.

He chose the former which, if left uncontested, would have placed enormous hardship on Ms Bolton and her two children, aged seven and five.

Apart from that she had nothing on her record.

In police facts tendered to the court, police called Ms Bolton a mother "struggling to make ends meet".

They said she worked as an auto supplies manager and was also paying off debts that her ex-partner had accrued in her name.

The court heard she had driven while suspended only to get to work or to take or pick up her children from school.

Without a licence she would have to catch two buses to work and, without family support in the area, would face enormous transport difficulties involving her children.

"In my view this appeal serves as a very good example of how laws containing mandatory provisions can bring about injustice which the courts are sometimes powerless to cure," Judge Conlon said.

The community expected judges to impose penalties appropriate to the objective seriousness of offences, he said.

"Mandatory provisions can often place an impenetrable barrier to leniency being extended in deserving cases," Judge Conlon added.

"If the only possible way of averting what in my view would be an injustice is to not record a conviction then that is what I will do."