Wolverhampton terror raid burglar has jail term cut on appeal

Serial offender, Thomas Reynolds, 30, was awaiting sentence for an earlier £12,000 raid when he caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to his elderly victim's home.

Reynolds, of Parklands Road, Bilston, was jailed for nine years at Wolverhampton Crown Court last June after he admitted three counts of burglary.

But three senior judges at London's Appeal Court upheld his sentence challenge - saying his punishment was not "just and proportionate" and cut it to seven-and-a-half years.

Mr Justice Globe said Reynolds burgled the home of an 83-year-old Warrington woman in 2003.

He pretended he needed access to her garden to get a ball which had gone over the fence and then pinched cash from her purse.

Ten years later, his fingerprint was discovered inside the property, which led to his arrest.

However, while on bail and five days before he was due to appear in court, Reynolds struck again.

He and three others wore masks as they raided a home in Mount Road, Penn, waking residents before escaping with jewellery and cash to the tune of £12,000.

Reynolds' DNA was recovered from the scene and he was later arrested. He pleaded guilty to the first burglary, at Chester Crown Court, in January, last year.

But four days later, while awaiting sentence, Reynolds joined two other raiders as they burgled the home of a 97-year-old woman in Bilston.

Thomas Reynolds and two other unidentified accomplices, all hooded, climbed onto a low wall to reach the flat garage roof and removed the first floor bathroom window to get into the property

The elderly victim was washing dishes when the masked men entered her home on February 4.

She was then frogmarched her around the property, during a terrifying hour-long ordeal, trying to force her to give up the location of cash they believed she was hiding by wreaking "gratuitous" and "needless" damage worth thousands.

The burglars left with a wallet containing cash, sentimental photographs of the woman's children as youngsters and credit cards.

Once again, however, Reynolds's DNA was found - this time in blood discovered on tiles near a broken window.

Reynolds had 26 previous convictions for 42 offences, said Mr Justice Globe.

When Reynolds was jailed last year, Judge Nicholas Webb told him: "The menace and fear you and your associates must have conveyed can be readily appreciated by all of us. These burglaries were on the cusp of robbery. Men wearing balaclavas are very intimidating."

However, on appeal, his lawyers argued that his punishment was too tough and Mr Justice Globe, sitting with Lord Justice Bean and Mr Justice Turner, agreed.

The judge said: "Notwithstanding the the seriousness of the offending, this was not a just and proportionate sentence.

"It was three years above the top of the sentencing range indicated in the sentencing guidelines. The just and proportionate sentence is one of seven-and-half years."

He concluded: "To this extent, the appeal is allowed."