Hilton broke down on hearing jail verdict

Paris Hilton wailed after a judge sentenced her to 45 days in jail - with no weekend passes or special privileges - for driving with a suspended licence a month after a cop warned her not to.

The 26-year-old hotel heiress was stunned and shaken when Judge Michael Sauer laid down the law and told her to report to the can by June 5.

"I don't know what happened ... I did what they said," she complained in a quivering voice after making the sign of the cross and putting her folded hands to her mouth.

Then The Simple Life star broke down, sobbing loudly as her socialite mum Kathy Hilton hugged and comforted her in Metropolitan Court.

The leggy blonde, who wore a prim pinstripe navy jacket and white blouse, showed up 20 minutes late for the 1.30pm hearing, powdering her nose on the way in.

On the way out, she donned dark sunglasses to hide her tear-streaked eyes and runny makeup.

During the hearing, Hilton blamed misinformation from her "advisers" for her two forays behind the wheel while her licence was suspended for an alcohol-related reckless driving conviction late last year.

"I wasn't allowed to drive for 30 days ... and I follow the laws," she said, summing up her incorrect understanding of the situation.

When a prosecutor asked if she read the licence suspension notice mailed to her from the Department of Motor Vehicles, she replied: "I have people do that for me."

The hotel heiress said she didn't read her plea agreement either. "I just sign what people tell me to sign," she said.

She looked genuinely confused when the prosecutor told her she "waived her rights" when in January she pleaded no contest to the booze-related driving charge.

Her publicist, Elliot Mintz, tried to take the fall, testifying he told Hilton it was okay to drive after 30 days for "work-related" purposes. He claimed he was misinformed.

The prosecutor made his case. "We are asking that she be held to the same standard as everyone else who goes through this system," Assistant City Attorney Dan Jeffries argued.

Sauer did not buy Hilton's shaky claims her advisers told her she was allowed to drive, especially after she got a written warning, which she signed, from a California Highway Patrol cop on January 15.

The next month, on February 27, she was stopped and cited when she drove her Bentley again - this time with the headlights off, even though it was 11pm.