A motorist was suffering from an undiagnosed neurological disorder when she ran over and killed a pedestrian in a supermarket car park, a court heard.

Hema Vora accidentally hit the accelerator instead of the brake while trying to leave Lidl’s car park in High Street, Edgware, causing her black V-reg Toyota Corolla to veer off and collide with shopper Ruth Joseph, 57, who died six days later of multiple organ failure and a rib fracture.

Harrow Crown Court heard today the diminutive 59-year-old defendant’s use of the incorrect pedal was a “lack of concentration” but her illness, of which she was then unaware, meant she lacked the “faculties” to react quick enough to correct the error.

Prosecutor Hugo Lodge said: “She was not just pressing the accelerator rather than the brake but continued to press the accelerator, leading to what various witnesses said ‘sounded as though the throttle was stuck’.

“The car was out of control, and first of all hitting the corner of the Lidl supermarket, and the place where the deceased was stood, hitting the pedestrian Ruth Joseph.

“The car then careers away from the pavement and, still apparently accelerating, hits the barriers and, in the words of one witness ‘launches like an aeroplane’ and crosses one direction of traffic and ends up straddling the central reservation [of High Street].

“The whole course of driving takes about 20 seconds.”

Vora, of Hibbert Road, Harrow, was diagnosed after the crash with a neurological condition and her driving licence has since been revoked by the Driving and Vehicle Licensing Authority on medical grounds.

Anthony Branley, for Vora, said: “She had become a bit clumsy but nobody had any idea this condition would affect her in a way it did on this occasion.”

He said the neurological disorder was “incurable, progressive and genetic, and is slowly getting worse”. His client had an unblemished 17-year driving record prior to the fatal collision, Mr Branley said.

Vora admitted causing death by careless driving and Judge Alan Greenwood sentenced her to a 12-month community order with 150 hours of unpaid work, disqualified her from driving for three years and ordered her to pay £640 prosecution costs.

He told the mother-of-two: “This is a tragic case. Tragic for two families.

“Tragic, of course, for the Joseph family, who have suffered a terrible loss.

“There has been considerable impact on your family as well.

“You have actually taken steps to do something about it: you help at the hospital where Mrs Joseph was taken and you have tried to take part in a meeting with the Joseph family in order to show that your share their distress, and in every other way it seems you have suffered yourself in their loss

“Unusually, it seems to me the right course is a community order, and not any custodial sentence.

“For the safety of the public, you should never drive again unless doctors have concluded otherwise, in light of developments.”

The accident occurred on September 26 2011 and Mrs Joseph, who lived in nearby Hillersdon Avenue, on the Barnet side of Edgware, died on October 2 2011.