£13,000 Smethwick jewellery raider has appeal dismissed
A burglar who broke in through the roof of a Smethwick jewellers to steal £13,000 worth of gems has lost an appeal against his sentence.
Robert James Maxfield, 40, had only been out of jail for eight weeks when he was involved in a raid on Kiran Jewellers in September last year.
The prolific criminal, of Higgins Walk, Smethwick, and others caused considerable damage to the store during the early hours burglary.
After cutting padlocks and failing to gain access, a hole was cut into the roof of the storage room and inside fire extinguishers were set off, glass was broken and £13,000 of stock taken from the window display.
Maxfield was identified after his blood was found on shards of glass left following the incident and he admitted the offence before being jailed for four years and four months at Birmingham Crown Court in May.
Appalling
Speaking at the Court of Appeal on Wednesday,m Judge Martin Picton said Maxfield had a “truly appalling record”.
Maxfield’s criminal career began in the early 1990s and included offences of violence and dishonesty.
He was last jailed in 2011 after he caused the death of a passenger when driving a getaway car following a robbery.
Judge Picton said: “He was released on licence from that in July 2017 and within eight weeks was back committing serious, planned, professional crime.
"It is not irrelevant that one of the offences committed in 2011 was a professionally planned commercial burglary. It was almost indistinguishable to this one in terms of the methodology employed.
“This was indeed a severe sentence and it was clearly intended so to be, but it was one that was deserved.”
