A NORTH-EAST man was last night cleared of a crime for which he spent eight years in prison - thanks to the tenacity of a group of students.

The youngsters, from Northumbria University Law School, spent four years fighting to have the case reviewed.

And yesterday their amazing persistence finally paid off when Alex Allan was cleared by the Court of Appeal in London.

Mr Allan, of Byker, in Newcastle, was convicted in 1991 of taking part in the armed robbery o#f a post office van on North Tyneside.

He appealed against the conviction in 1994 but it was turned down and he served the rest of his sentence.

Yesterday, appeal court judges accepted arguments put forward by a team of eight law students and ruled Mr Allan's conviction to be unsafe.

The slate will now be wiped clean and Mr Allan will be entitled to compensation for the eight years he spent behind bars.

Last night, a relieved Mr Allan said: "I can't believe it. It hasn't sunk in yet. In all it's been 11 years out of my life. I'm just so relieved everything is all over."

The only evidence firmly linking Mr Allan to the robbery was a confession that police claimed he made when he was arrested but which he denied ever took place.

His case was brought to the attention of the university's Student Law Office in 1997.

The office is run as a law firm and students deal with clients under the supervision of fully qualified solicitors.

Eight would-be lawyers have worked on Mr Allan's case - two each year since 1997.

The students queried his alleged confession and an application was made to the Criminal Cases Review Commission which investigates suspected miscarriages of justice.

The commission referred the case to the Court of Appeal in 1998 and the hearing came to court last month.

Accepting arguments put forward by the students, the court said it had found "a clear question mark over the reliability of the appellant's admission".

The court said that the robbery victim's description was almost completely at odds with Mr Allan's appearance.

Susan Hirst, 23, of Whickham, Gateshead, and Jennifer Blewitt, 22, who lives in Heaton, Newcastle, took over the case last year.

Susan said: "We came into the case after it had been running for almost three years and we were hopeful that it would come to the Court of Appeal before the end of our degree.

"It was an amazing experience for us, particularly seeing the barristers making the submissions that we had been working on.

"I feel as though we have made a real contribution to finally getting justice for Mr Allan and learned a huge amount about the legal system along the way."

Jennifer said: "At first we felt overwhelmed by the size of the case.

"But we have thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish, especially as it was such a fantastic result."

Jenifer and Susan have both just graduated with firsts.