'Be under no illusions about how close you have come to prison today': Greater Manchester criminals who avoided jail by a whisker

One of the most difficult decisions judges face is whether a criminal should be sent to jail. In some cases their crimes mean that a prison sentence is inevitable.

But in for others, judges have the discretion to take a step back and avoid sending them immediately to prison.

Here are some of the cases where judges faced that scenario and decided to spare defendants from being locked up.