A MAN who stole more than £700 from his father has been freed from a jail sentence after a court heard his father wanted him to be given another chance.

A MAN who stole more than £700 from his father has been freed from a jail sentence after a court heard his father wanted him to be given another chance.

Karl Hills stole £790 from his father's safe to pay for parts for a car he was customising, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Michael Crimp, prosecuting, said on the first occasion Hills had stolen £700 and then rang his father, Peter Joswiak, and told him what he had done.

Hills agreed to repay the money, but two weeks later his father found the safe had been forced open and a further £95 had been taken. The police were contacted and Hills was arrested.

He told officers that he had taken the money to buy parts for his car and had hoped to repay the money with a bank loan. However, his application for the loan had been turned down.

Hills, of The Drift, Rede, admitted two offences of theft when he appeared before Sudbury magistrates last week and was jailed for two months.

He appeared at Ipswich Crown Court yesterday to appeal against the sentence after serving a week in prison.

Mr Crimp told the court Hills' father felt that "if the courts mercy can stretch that far, his son deserves another chance".

Judge Caroline Ludlow, sitting with two magistrates, allowed the appeal and substituted the prison sentence with a 160-hour community punishment order.

Judge Ludlow said although the magistrates had been right to impose a prison sentence, the bench felt it was just possible to be merciful and to allow the appeal."

Claire Watson, representing Hills, said what he had done had been mean, despicable and thoroughly selfish.

She added the money had been taken to customise a car that he was now hoping to sell for £1,900, which would enable him to reimburse his father.