TWO business partners caught with stolen car parts at their workshop have walked free from court.

Police found the audio system, aerial and speedometer from the Ford Mondeo during a swoop at the ST Commercial unit in Darlington in February last year.

Shane Thackray and Lee Bickerton said they had bought the bits from a gypsy - but he cold not be traced, and there was no records of the transaction.

The £13,000 car had been stolen three months earlier and was later registered to a friend of Bickerton, 31, who had no knowledge of the vehicle.

Bickerton, of Chatsworth Terrace, and Thackray, 31, of High Northgate, both Darlington, admitted converting criminal property - stripping the car of its parts.

They were each given a 12-month community order with 140 hours of unpaid work, and Thackray - the only one still in work - was told to pay £1,500 compensation.

His barrister Dan Cordey told Teesside Crown Court: "This defendant is repairing cars on his own, and has kept the business going for two years now."