Appeal judges have cut the sentences of members of a gang who donned burka-style outfits to commit a violent robbery in Dundee.
Dean King,29, Anthony Wheeldon,40, and Connor Willis,24, were jailed for more than 32 years following a hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh last year.
The trio admitted raiding Walker the Jeweller in Dundee’s Union Street on September 23, 2019, while acting with others.
King kept the door open while accomplices – two of whom were dressed in full length robes and face coverings – burst in, wielding a sledgehammer.
They escaped in a stolen Ford Kuga after grabbing Rolex watches worth £17,850 and assaulting a customer.
Willis was part of a gang which staged another, earlier, violent robbery at a jewellery business in Edinburgh.
A judge told the trio the offences “involved ferocious and frightening violence which followed sophisticated planning”.
He jailed King for nine years and two months, Wheeldon for 11 years and Willis for 12 years.
Wheeldon was placed under supervision for a further four years and Willis for five years.
On Friday, judges Lord Doherty and Lord Matthews reduced King’s sentence to seven years and 10 months.
Wheeldon had his sentence reduced to nine years and two months – his supervision remains at four years.
Willis was told he will now serve 10 years and five months in custody and will be supervised for five years following his release from jail.
At a hearing last year, Lord Beckett said the crimes “involved ferocious and frightening violence which followed sophisticated planning”.
He added: “For such serious, sophisticated and violent crimes severe sentences are called for in order to protect the public from you, to punish you and to seek to deter you and others from such crimes.”
However, on Friday, Lord Matthews said: “The sentences that were imposed were excessive.”
King’s solicitor advocate Iain Paterson said his client’s criminal record did not include convictions for violence.
He said this meant King should have received a lesser sentence.
Wheeldon’s advocate Ronnie Renucci QC and Willis’s solicitor advocate Gordon Martin successfully argued their clients’ sentences were excessive also.
