Prolific thief’s sentence ‘entirely right’, top judges rule
A thief who was jailed after burgling a family home to fund his drug addiction deserved every day of his sentence, judges have ruled.
The majority of Sean Fraser Taylor’s life had been blighted by addiction to hard drugs and crime, which he committed to feed the habit, an appeals court heard.
In July 2016 he burgled a house in Southfields Close, near to his then home, while a young family slept upstairs.
He took a mobile phone, tablet computer, handbag and wallet, which he said he used to fund his consumption of heroin and crack cocaine.
Jailed
In January last year, after admitting that raid – as well as another burglary and an attempted burglary at Stafford Crown Court – he was jailed for five years and four months.
Three senior judges at the Court of Appeal in London upheld the sentence, which they said was perfectly fair for someone with Taylor’s record. He had lived a ‘life of crime’ since he was a teenager, first qualifying as a ‘third strike’ burglar in 2000, said Mr Justice Garnham.
And he had since been in court four more times for burglary offences since that date, the court heard.
The proceeds of his crimes went on feeding an addiction he had endured ‘throughout his adolescence and adult life’, added Mr Justice Garnham.
Lawyers for Taylor, now aged 36, argued before the judge, Lady Justice Sharp and Judge Wendy Joseph QC, that the sentence he had received was too tough.
But rejecting the appeal, Mr Justice Garnham said: “In our judgment, the sentencing judge was entirely right to approach the matter in the way he did.
“Sean Taylor is a persistent burglar. Whilst some judges may have been more lenient, we are quite unable to say this sentence was manifestly excessive.”
