The teenage son of Calne mayor Helen Plenty has had an order banning him from working with children removed.

Scott Plenty, of Wessington Avenue, Calne, was told he would be barred from ever working with minors following a conviction for downloading child pornography.

But Judge Euan Ambrose, who was sitting with two magistrates when they made the order, removed it on Thursday after learning it was unlawful.

The 18-year-old appeared at Swindon Crown Court last month to appeal against a jail term imposed by the justices in Chippenham in December.

He had initially been sentenced to 12 weeks behind bars after he admitted two charges of making and one of possessing indecent images of children.

However he successfully appealed and had the period of detention replaced with a three-year community order.

Allowing the appeal the court also imposed an indefinite ban on him working with children, which could only be lifted if he applied for it to be discharged.

But the order can only be made by the crown court and as the appeal is a rehearing of a magistrates’ case the judge and justices are bound by the rules of the lower court.

Judge Ambrose said after reading a submission on the complicated area of law by Plenty’s defence team he clarified the sentence saying the ban was not in place.

At the appeal hearing the court was told that as the offences were committed before the defendant became an adult he would not have to register as a sex offender.

Joanne Sears, defending, said that Plenty had been a child at the time of the offending. She said Plenty, who lost his job as a chef as a result of the case, insists he has no sexual interest in children and had downloaded the images out of curiosity.