A STREET robber jailed for a year is today a free woman after less than a fortnight behind bars.

Judge Simon Hickey changed the sentence he gave Joanna Nicola Ayre to a suspended sentence.

“Having reflected on what I have read and all of the material I have now seen, I think it is appropriate,” he said.

He ordered her case back to York Crown Court so he could suspend her 12-month sentence for 12 months.

He took into account medical and other details he had been told about her family and the effect locking her up had on them.

He also took into account the two years it had taken the CPS and police to put her before the court.

And he quoted a recent ruling by appeal judges that prison sentences should be less than in normal times because prison conditions during the pandemic are tougher than in normal times.

Ayre, 49, of The Laurels, Barlby, pleaded guilty to a street robbery committed in September 2017.

She attended the hearing via a video link to Low Newton prison.

When he jailed her on June 30, the judge heard that police arrested her within hours of the robbery in Selby.

By then they also had CCTV of her using the victim’s bank card.