A TEENAGE robber, who used a stun gun to threaten the manager of the Liphook Co-op, has had his sentence cut by two years.
Damien James Lynch, 20, from Swindon, was 19 when he was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to robbery, at Winchester Crown Court last October.
On Friday, London's Criminal Appeal Court cut his term to five years, after taking into account his youth, his guilty plea, and the limited role he played in the robbery.
However, his accomplice Iain Lawrie, 27, of Larch Close, Liphook, failed in his bid to have his three-and-a-half-year sentence reduced for the same crime, at the same court on Monday.
Lord Justice Buxton, sitting with Mr Justice Gibbs and Judge James Paget QC, said there was no doubt the offence was "an extremely serious venture".
Lawrie was employed at the branch when he "fell into friendship" with a customer at the store. He gave the man information about the premises and security, to stage the robbery that took place just days after he was sacked.
Late one night last year, Lynch and a third man went to the shop and confronted the manager, while Lawrie waited outside as lookout. Lord Justice Buxton said Lynch held the stun gun, which he had been given by the third man.
"The manager was threatened that unless he co-operated by securing the alarm and opening the safe, the gun would be used," he said. "He was told they had no wish to hurt him. He understandably co-operated."
The manager was tied up, and the robbers left with the contents of the safe, with Lynch receiving £600. Lawrie was given £250.
Lord Justice Buxton said that the aggravating features included it being a targeted robbery of particularly vulnerable premises and the use of the stun gun.
"It also involved violence, albeit not resulting in serious injury, in that the manager was tied up," he said.
In arguing for a sentence cut, Lynch's barrister, Christopher Parker, said while he was clearly willing to go along with the robbery and played a prominent part, Lynch did not plan it. He had not shown disloyalty to an employer, and did not come up with the idea of the stun gun.
"The fact he was willing to play his role may to some extent be explained by his comparative youth and by the very unsatisfactory life he has lived for the last four or five years," the judge said. "He has clearly been alienated from society receiving no proper schooling or employment.
While not undervaluing the seriousness of the offence, the judge said the "overwhelming" feature was Lynch's youth and cut his term to five years.
Refusing to cut Lawrie's sentence, Lord Justice Buxton said the crown court judge had given him full credit for his plea of guilty and the fact that he gave evidence against his co-accused.
"This was an attack on a small store late in the evening - a premises providing important services to the public," he added. "The seriousness of Mr Lawrie's involvement was that he was prepared to go along with this plan instead of doing what he should have done and telling the police or his employers."
Bearing all those factors in mind, there was no doubt the crown court judge was right to sentence Lawrie to three-and-a half-years' imprisonment, the judge concluded.