By Staff Reporter

Last updated at 11:57, Monday, 18 March 2013

A “Fagin-like” burglar who recruited a teenager for a night-time raid on an elderly man’s home – stealing his treasured angling gear – has had his jail sentence cut.

Gary Petre

Gary Steven Petre, who has a record of 48 previous offences, received a sentence of four and a half years at Carlisle Crown Court in October after admitting burglary.

Judge David Radford, sitting with Mr Justice Foskett, told London’s Appeal Court Petre took a 16-year-old boy with him while breaking into a home in Newlands Gardens, Workington, in June last year.

The sentencing judge had described the 38-year-old as “almost a Fagin-like character” – a reference to the villain who recruits an army of boy thieves in Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist.

Petre, of Buttermere Road, Maryport – who denied leading the lad astray – and the teenager took two jackets, a fishing reel and two much-loved fishing rods from the 64-year-old’s home, the court heard.

Victim Michael Baker initially tried to brush aside the burglary, but Judge Radford said it was clear the raid had taken a devastating toll and had erased “all his happy memories” of his home.

Already suffering from angina, he was now anxious to move into a top-floor flat and felt that “his world had been turned upside-down”.

“He no longer feels safe and secure and cannot sleep at night,” said the judge.

Carlisle Crown Court heard how Mr Baker had been woken at about 1am on June 9 by the sound of his living room window being forced open. He went to investigate and saw the two men outside. Mr Baker went to call the police but found he couldn’t because Petre had taken his mobile.

Instead, he had to walk for half an hour to his nearest police station to raise the alarm.

Judge Radford noted Petre’s “appalling” criminal record and said he “richly deserved” a heavy sentence.

But the sentence of four and a half years took insufficient account of Petre’s guilty plea, said the judge, concluding that it was “manifestly excessive”.

The sentence was cut by nine months, to 45 months.

First published at 11:51, Monday, 18 March 2013
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk