A getaway driver who was part of a trio targeting a high street cash machine in a Kent shop has been handed a suspended sentence.

Two men were jailed on Friday while a third, Stuart Boyle, narrowly escaped jail time after a Co-op cash machine was targeted in November, 2014.

James Murphy, 35, formerly of Lapwing Close, Minster, received a total custodial sentence of four years and two months as he was already on bail for two other offences.

Murphy’s look-out in the supermarket raid, Jerry Rateau, 38, from Islington, was jailed for 14 months.

Their getaway driver – Stuart Boyle, 30, from Walthamstow received a 14-month suspended prison sentence.

All three were sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court on Friday (July 10) after pleading guilty to the offence.

During the sentencing the court heard how a member of staff at the Co-Op in High Street, Sheerness, was alerted by a security alarm sounding at about 10.25pm on November 30, 2014.

When she went to investigate she found that the front door had been forced open. It was later discovered that the front panel of a cash machine inside the store had been forced off, although no money was stolen.

CCTV footage showed that one man wearing a balaclava, later identified as Murphy, entered the supermarket alone and prised the panel off with a crowbar while a second man, later identified as Rateau, waited at the front door as a look-out.

Shortly after 11pm officers stopped a car that had driven away from them at speed near the High Street.

The driver, Boyle, and his passenger, Rateau, were arrested after an officer who had viewed the CCTV provided a positive identification of Rateau.

Investigating officer Detective Constable Freddie Elspass-Collins said: “Three mobile telephones belonging to the defendants were also discovered in the car, containing texts we are confident referred to the planning of the raid.

“The fact Murphy planned and committed this offence while on bail for two others demonstrates his inability to learn from his mistakes. He now has more than four years behind bars in which to consider the consequences of his actions.”