A teenager who acted as getaway driver during a £20,000 raid on a farm supply shop has been granted his freedom by three Appeal Court judges.

Robin Clarke, 19, from Headington, drove the van used in the night-time raid on the shop in Macclesfield, Cheshire, in April last year.

Mr Justice Holroyde said the gang stripped the store of goods worth £20,000.

They were caught by police on the way back to Oxfordshire, London’s Appeal Court heard.

Clarke, of Village Road, was given an eight-month sentence at Chester Crown Court in May this year after admitting burglary, but this has now been suspended.