A French punk rocker who handed himself in 30 years after committing a €2m bank heist, saying he could no longer bear his guilty conscience, has been handed a suspended sentence.

Gilles Bertin was given a five year suspended sentence by a judge in Toulouse, southwestern France, meaning he can walk free and return to Barcelona, where he lives with his partner and son.

The prosecuting magistrate had asked for five years in prison, saying that time and remorse were not enough to exonerate Bertin.

But the verdict was met with applause from supporters of the singer, who said he handed himself in because: "I had to pay my debt, I no longer had the choice."

Bertin, 57, was the lead singer in Bordeaux-based punk group Camera Silens, with some dubbing him France’s answer to Sid Vicious and the Sex Pistols.

The group had a cult following in the 1980s from anarchists and far-Left fans in tune with its nihilism.