A LEFT wing politician who stood in the last General Election has had his conviction for causing criminal damaged quashed by a judge.

Steve German was wrongly found guilty by magistrates in February of this year of scratching the paintwork of a BMW car during a road rage incident, Judge James Patrick ruled at Taunton Crown Court.

The judge overturned the original sentence imposed at Taunton Magistrates' Courts which saw Mr German, 55, of Greenway Road, Taunton, ordered to pay a total of £970 in fines, compensation and costs.

After watching CCTV recordings of the incident, which occurred in March 2015, the judge accepted that Mr German's accuser, Paul Lanning, had braked sharply and had encroached on the pedestrian crossing near Morrisons.

The Socialist Party member and Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition parliamentary candidate polled just 118 votes in the General Election in Taunton Deane in 2015 just weeks after the incident.

He told the County Gazette this week he was "delighted and relieved" at being cleared of "totally unreasonable and unconscionable" behaviour.

He added: "I have always consistently and strenuously maintained my innocence throughout this very long and tiring process.

“I have finally been proven innocent and have been completely and unequivocally vindicated by the crown court’s decision to quash my wrongful conviction."

Mr German accused his opponents of jumping on the bandwagon and using his conviction as a "political weapon", but thanked his family, friends and supporters for their "unshakeable belief in my innocence".

He said: "I now look forward to being able to spend my time more productively in building both the Socialist Party and TUSC and assisting in the process of defending Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party against the co-ordinated attacks of the Tories, the Blairites and the right wing in the Labour Party."