Post Office raiders' appeal quashed

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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Trio jailed ATM and cash machine from Denbighshire post office told that they're sentences were not a "day too long" by judge



Three thieves who snatched an ATM machine from a rural Post Office in the dead of night have been told by judges that their jail terms were “not a day too long”.

Lee Anthony Browne, 26, Kieran Richard George Sendall, 25, and Jamie Mark Worrall, 27, used a stolen Audi to raid the Post Office and village store in Llandyrnog in the early hours of March 5 last year.

Sendall, of Maes Gwyn, Flint, was jailed for four and a half years, Worrall, of Woodfield Avenue, Flint, received four years and nine months, and Browne, of Willow Grove, Liverpool, got four years at Mold Crown Court last August.

All three had pleaded guilty to burglary, while Worrall and Sendall also admitted aggravated vehicle taking.

Browne pleaded guilty to being carried in a car taken without consent.

Lord Justice Lloyd Jones, Mr Justice Holroyde and Mr Justice Supperstone, sitting at London’s Criminal Appeal Court yesterday, heard lawyers for the trio ask for their punishments to be cut.

During the raid the cash machine, which was secured to the floor, and the post office cash register were both taken. They only contained just over £200.

The burglars, who smashed their way into the store, were spotted fleeing at speed by police who pursued them until they crashed their stolen vehicle and fled on foot. Browne and Sendall were caught, but Worrall escaped until a palm print linked him to the burglary.

Police found the cash register in the car’s boot and the ATM was lying across the back seat.

Lawyers yesterday argued the three had wrongly been treated as “ram raiders” and sentenced too heavily. It was also said that the small amount of cash taken ought to count in their favour.

But Mr Justice Holroyde, throwing out their appeals, said they had been rightly treated as ram raiders even if it was “not a typical case”.

He also said that it was the amount of money the crooks intended to take that was important, not the sum they actually got. “These premises were particularly vulnerable and particularly important to the local community. We do not consider that these sentences were manifestly excessive,” he said.

[UnhappyGremlin]

It's a matter of opinion, isn't it?

I don't think the sentences were long enough.