Jason Ayodeji Akinola, of Stafford Road, lent his car to pair of crooks

A South Kilburn man who lent his car to a pair of robbers so they could carry out a heist has had his prison sentence reduced on appeal.

Jason Ayodeji Akinola, 24, of Stafford Road, was jailed for three-and-a-half years, after he admitted supplying the vehicle to Minore Kalala, 27, and Robert Kasanga, 26.

Kalala, of no fixed address and Kasanga, from Stoke Newington, north London, were jailed for six years at the Old Bailey in July after they admitted three counts of robbery.

Kalala and Kasanga were each initially jailed for four years in July 2011 for one of the robberies, and a year later were hauled before the court again for the remaining three raids in what the appeal judge called an ‘unusual’ process.

On sentencing them for the three raids, the judge said he was giving the men their six-year terms concurrent with the terms already imposed.

Akinola admitted one count of robbery on the basis that he supplied the men with a vehicle on December 21, 2010, knowing they would use it for robbery, but he was not present at the time.

Last Friday, the Court of Appeal cut the men’s sentences by a year each after Kalala and Kasanga’s lawyers argued it was ‘manifestly excessive’ and the judge had failed to take into account the time already served.

Mr Justice Bean, sitting with Judge Elgan Edwards QC, cut Kalala and Kasanga’s overall sentences to five years each.

Cutting Akinola’s sentence he added: “We think that he might be left with an understandable sense of grievance for his sentence to stay at three-and-a-half years, given the very considerable difference in culpability between him and the other two men.”

The trio will serve half of their new sentences before being eligible for automatic release.