An Italian woman who spiked her colleague's coffee for nine months in the hope that she would be sacked has been jailed for four years.

Mariangela Cerrato, 53, came up with the plan when she heard rumors about job cuts at the insurance company she worked for in Bra, Piedmont.

She and her victim worked in similar roles.

AUSTRALIAN POLITICIAN BORROWS LINES FROM 'THE WEST WING' FICTIONAL PRESIDENT IN OWN CORONAVIRUS SPEECH

Cerrato put benzodiazepine powder into her co-worker's cappuccino when doing the daily coffee run for her team.

"The drug induces fatigue, headaches, dizziness and muscular pain and my client's work rate slowed after she drank the cappuccino," Cristiano Burdese, the lawyer for the female victim, told La Stampa newspaper.

The victim realized something was wrong when she drove into a tree on her way home from work.

Read more at Sky News.