A BURGLAR from Witney who was caught by police when his getaway car got stuck in a muddy field has had his prison sentence cut.

James Pimlott, right, of Corn Bar, was originally jailed for 18 months in June after admitting a burglary in The Street, Castle Eaton, near Cricklade, Wiltshire.

Judges sitting at London’s Appeal Court heard on Tuesday the 19-year-old and Nicholas Overton, of Botley Road, Oxford, made off with phones and computers just as a neighbour alerted police.

A patrol car chased them through the village and beyond before their getaway car slid and came to a halt in a field.

Pimlott’s legal team insisted he only went along as a look-out, said he had been working long hours in a factory, and that prison had rehabilitated him.

The judges heard him described as a “model prisoner” who has a job cleaning out the bins for the entire jail.

A judge in Swindon Crown Court imposed the jail term because of the "traumatic effect" of the burglary on the householders, who were out at work at the time.

But Mr Justice Openshaw, at the Appeal Court, said: “Serious though the impact of the burglary was – and without seeking to minimise what happened – it was no worse than many offences of its kind.”

The court ruled Pimlott’s sentence was longer than it needed to be and halved it to nine months.

Overton received 27 months jail.