'Professional' burglar who crashed into eight cars while fleeing police has jail term cut
A member of a 'professional' burglary gang that stole car keys in break-ins and high value cars from driveways has had his jail term slashed on appeal.
Martin Tolan, 29, took part in a series of 'professionally planned' raids on homes across the West Midlands.
But he bit off more than he could chew when he targeted the home of a CCTV engineer, London's Appeal Court heard.
Tolan, of Central Avenue, Northfield, was identified through high quality footage recovered by cops from the CCTV expert's cameras.
He also caused chaos on Bristol Road in the city by trying to ram his way through a queue of cars at traffic lights.
He was fleeing from police and collided with eight other vehicles last April.
Tolan was jailed for a total of nine years 11 months at Birmingham Crown Court last July.
He pleaded guilty to a string of burglaries and thefts, plus two counts of handling stolen goods and two of dangerous driving.
A suspended sentence, previously imposed for assault occasioning actual bodily harm, was activated.
But Appeal Court judges have ruled Tolan's overall sentence was too long – and cut it to seven years and 10 months.
Slamming Tolan, Mrs Justice McGowan said: "Every time he committed a burglary he drove off dangerously, at the risk of killing people.
"These were offences involving a significant degree of planning and organisation by a group, or gang, of men carrying with them tools for the purpose of carrying out burglaries.
"The homes were burgled in the middle of the night, regardless of the fact that families were there asleep.
"These families had their lives transformed by the fact that their homes, which they thought were secure, had been broken into by a gang of men."
Allowing the appeal and reducing Tolan's jail term, however, she concluded: "This total sentence was too long."
