A MAN who spent two months behind bars after driving a stolen car won his liberty today while a court decides what to do with him.

Stephen Paul MacDonald, 20, of Princess Road, Ripon, pleaded guilty at Harrogate Magistrates' Court to taking a car without the owner's consent, driving it while disqualified and without insurance.

When MacDonald also admitted failing to comply with a red traffic light, prosecutor Robert Moore withdrew charges of aggravated vehicle taking and failing to stop for a police officer in uniform.

A charge of going equipped for theft by possessing a screwdriver was also dropped.

MacDonald's solicitor Geoffrey Rogers agreed the court would need probation reports before sentence was passed, particularly as MacDonald was currently subject to a community rehabilitation order.

But Mr Rogers argued MacDonald, who appeared in court via a video link with Hull Prison, should be bailed in the meantime.

He said MacDonald had spent two months in custody since his offences at the end of June.

He had originally been bailed by police but failed to turn up at the first hearing. For that he had been jailed for 28 days and had been remanded in custody on the substantive charges. But it was time to say that was long enough behind bars.

Court chairman Canon Keith Punshon bailed MacDonald until September 27 on condition he remains at his home address, where he lives with his parents, and observes a nightly curfew.