A TEENAGER with low intelligence who was part of a gang of car rammers and burglars has escaped a prison sentence.

Kieran Connor, 19, was with ex-prisoners Jack Setchell, 22, and Charlie Maurice Dunn, 25, on a night-time farm raiding trip in Ryedale, York Crown Court heard.

As they tried to escape in a series of stolen vehicles, the gang smashed into four police cars, causing £21,000 damage, said Brooke Morrison, prosecuting.

Several people whose properties were targeted and whose vehicles were wrecked by the gang told the court how they are continuing to suffer major financial and emotional problems as a result of the raids.

Setchell and Dunn did not attend the sentencing hearing.

The Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, said court cell staff had called in ambulance staff to see them when they were brought to the court building from the prison where they are on remand.

“It is suspected they have taken drugs and are in no fit state to appear in court,” the judge told the court. “I take the view they have waived their right to appear.”

He went ahead with the sentencing of Connor, whose barrister Stephen Welford said had an IQ of 64 and would do whatever anyone told him to do.

The judge said professional farm raiding gangs “often ensure they take along with them someone of slight build who can squeeze through windows and unlock doors".

He told Connor: “Your ability to know right from wrong would not be that of a normal person of your age. It is quite clear to me – and an aggravating feature of the case of the other two – you were recruited into this.

“You turned up today sober and drug free, unlike the other two who have got themselves off their head, which shows how much remorse they have got.”

He made Connor subject to a three-year community order with 300 hours’ unpaid work, the maximum he could order, and 50 days’ rehabilitative activities, banned him from driving for 12 months, ordered him to take an extended driving test before driving alone again and warned him he faces two years in jail if he doesn’t do all the order.

“Watch who you associate with from now on,” he told Connor. “They (Setchell and Dunn) are going to get considerably more than that.”

Connor, of Quilstyle Road, Wheatley Hill, Durham, pleaded guilty to one charge of house burglary, three burglaries of farm outbuildings, three offences of being a passenger during an aggravated taking a vehicle without the owner’s consent and one of theft of a quad bike.

Setchell, of Seaton Lane, Hartlepool, and Dunn, of Heathfield Drive, Hartlepool, will both be sentenced on March 7 via a videolink to prison.

Mr Welford said Connor had a very limited record and had admitted his guilt immediately. He was vulnerable and was supported by his family.