The family of a BBC Scotland presenter who suffered serious brain damage from a car crash caused by his drink-driving wife hit out at her sentence yesterday.

The brother of Colin Mackinnon says his sister-in-law should have been jailed for the smash.

Former TV producer Paula Mackinnon has been fined a total of £1600 and banned from driving for two years for causing a serious crash which badly disabled her husband both physically and mentally, court heard.

Well-known TV current affairs presenter Colin Mackinnon was badly injured in the one-vehicle crash on Lewis last October.

The 45-year-old is still in hospital in Glasgow and was recently hooked up to a ventilator in intensive care to help him breath.

In recent days, he has been moved into a high dependency unit His family say he is badly disabled, has brain damage and will need nursing care for the rest of his life as a result of the accident.

Stornoway Sheriff Court yesterday was told that Colin's wife, Paula Mackinnon had been drinking before she caused the serious car crash and injured her husband.

She was fined a total of £1600 and banned from driving for two years.

The 35-year-old, of Netherton Avenue, Anniesland, Glasgow, was three times the legal limit when the car failed to negotiate a bend at the Lower Bayble junction on the main Point to Stornoway road and careered off the carriageway.

The court was told the Nissan Micra landed in moorland and ended up facing in the opposite direction.

She pleaded guilty to drunk driving on October 7 last year by having a blood alcohol count of 255mg while the legal maximum is 80mg.

She also admitted dangerous driving and with excessive speed, on the main Point road at Lower Bayble junction causing the vehicle to leave the road and end up on moorland causing injury to her passenger, Colin Mackinnon, as well as injuring herself and damaging the car.

On a third charge she accepted that she did not have proper insurance for the car.

Procurator fiscal David Teale said the couple came up from Glasgow to visit her parents who were not in good health. He said they had been drinking before and during the flight.

About 8pm she and her husband asked to borrow her father's car. The court was told that on the main Point road at the Lower Bayble junction she was "going far too fast to safely negotiate the bend."

Mr Teale said: "The accused was removed from the driver's seat and her husband was very, very seriously injured. When police saw her she was smelling of drink."

Her solicitor said she was a first offender and had a clean licence.

He added that she intended to drive the pair to the hotel where they were staying and wrongly believed she was covered by her father's insurance.

He said there was a "deceptive camber" on the bend and that Paula MacKinnon had fractured her cheekbone and suffered nerve damage.

He added: "The tragedy is his injuries would have been far less serious if he was wearing his seatbelt which she was."

He solicitor said that she attended rehabilitation daily with her husband - a point which is questioned by his family.

Colin's brother Iain said: "The sentence is outrageous. For something like this a custodial sentence should have been considered.

"I am very disappointed with the two year ban. It does not reflect the damage caused to Colin. Colin will never walk again and he is brain damaged."

Mrs Mackinnon, has produced BBC Scotland's flagship news programme Reporting Scotland and has latterly done occasional current affairs broadcasts for the BBC.