A ‘CALCULATING’ mother of two who caused more than £8,000 worth of damage at a Cwmbran house owned by her former father-in-law has been given a suspended sentence.

After Victoria Quibell-Smith’s marriage to Roger Smith’s son Paul broke down last year she went on a spree of destruction at the house they had once shared in Buttercup Court.

She wrecked personal effects and decor at the property from March to June 2013 after Mr Smith had given her notice to leave it with her children.

Smashed glass littered the floor, cigarette ends and ash were scattered in a bedroom and rooms smelled of urine, Newport Crown Court heard.

It heard that she had let her children write on the house’s walls with red pen – and she wrote on the wall herself but tried to make out that it had been done by an infant by drawing with her left hand.

Prosecuting, Gareth James said Quibell-Smith, of Central Street in Ystrad Mynach, had caused her former father-in-law £7,304.44 of damage, which was covered by insurance.

Among the personal items that she wrecked were five of her ex-husband’s sports cigarette cards, each worth £150. Pictures worth £600 were also damaged, giving a total cost of £1,250.

Quibell-Smith, 30, had pleaded guilty to two counts of damaging property at a hearing last month. Occasional removals man, Dale Cronin, said in a statement that he had never seen a house in such a disgusting state: “It was dirty, minging and smelled.”

Sentencing her, Judge Tom Crowther said she had embarked on a “campaign of deliberate destruction” in the house and was “richly deserving” of a custodial sentence. He said her claim to be the sole carer for her children was the only reason she would not be sent to prison.

On the first count, relating to her former father-in-law’s house, she was given a four-month prison sentence, suspended for two years. On the second count regarding her husband’s property she was given a two-month prison sentence, also suspended for two years. They will run concurrently.

She must observe a daily curfew from 8pm until 6am for four months and pay her ex-husband £1,250 as well as £500 prosecution costs within six months.