Court rules three years in jail was ‘manifestly excessive’

A teenage burglar who traveled from his Kensal Rise home to Canterbury for a smash-and-grab raid on an Apple store has had his sentence slashed by appeal judges.

The Court of Appeal heard Connor Ryan, 19, of Clifford Gardens, was caught red-handed at the Stormfront shop, in Marlowe Arcade, with 25-year-old Christopher Anthony Forde from Fulham.

In June, after earlier pleading guilty to burglary, both men were each sentenced to three years behind bars at Canterbury Crown Court.

But today (Monday), three senior judges sitting at the Criminal Court of Appeal in London said the sentences were “manifestly excessive” and cut them to two years.

Judge Anthony Scott-Gall said Ryan and Forde were caught out in February when CCTV operators saw them arrive on a scooter and begin smashing their way into the shop.

They had travelled from London, carrying a sledge-hammer, but were caught as they left the store with a bag containing almost �10,000 worth of iPods.

“Caught red-handed,” Forde told the police officer who detained him at the scene.

Their lawyers argued that the crown court judge had been wrong to say that the burglary was in the most serious category for raids on non-residential premises.

“There were undoubtedly aggravating features in the case,” Judge Scott-Gall told the Appeal Court. “The burglary was pre-planned, with both appellants travelling from London for high value goods which could easily be sold on.”

But the most serious category of burglaries is for raids in which more than �10,000 of property is taken, continued the judge, sitting today with Lord Justice Moses and Mr Justice Burnett.

“The sentences imposed were manifestly excessive.”

The terms were each cut to two years.

Last month, Ryan was jailed for his part in a five-strong robbery gang that targeted cash in transit vans in December 2010 and January this year.

He was sentenced to five years and nine months fat Isleworth Crown Court for attempted robbery and two counts of robbery.