John Smith, whose limbs end in stumps just below his elbows, was a part of a £175,000 ($337,833) heist on a jeweller.

Fellow gang members helped Smith out by leaning across to change gears for him in the getaway Ford Focus. He is not thought to have been wearing prosthetic limbs during the chase, reported The Courier Mail.

Smith cannot dress himself and lives at home with his mother but managed to drive the vehicle more than 30 miles with police in hot pursuit, before he crashed.

He pleaded guilty at Maidstone Crown Court this week to being an accessory to the December robbery and was given a 12-month suspended jail sentence.

Smith's lawyer, Lee Halliday Davis, told the court her client had limited reading and writing skills. "Because of his naivety, he did not fully accept that by sitting in the car he was actually involved in the burglary," she told the court.

While two of the gang members were sent to prison, another person who sat in court sucking his thumb escaped jail time.

Folklaw wonders whether any other publication has resisted the urge to make the stereotypical dodgy British joke and say: "The court refused to accept that it was just a bit of armless fun".

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Ba doom!