A man who was jailed for 20 months for raiding a house and twice failing to turn up for his trial, has had his jail term cut to 11 months.

Appeal Court Judge Mr Justice Owen said there was nothing wrong with the sentences imposed upon 27-year-old Roger Dare, who admitted burglary and failing to surrender to custody when he finally appeared at Oxford Crown Court on May 29 this year.

But his co-accused Mark Cuthbertson, who also admitted burgling the home in an Oxfordshire village and breaching bail, was "extraordinarily lucky" to receive the equivalent of four months' imprisonment.

Mr Justice Owen, sitting in London with Lord Justice Schiemann and Judge Gerald Coles QC, said the disparity in the sentences on the two men was so great that the court had to intervene.

Dare, of Cowley Road, Oxford, jailed for 18 months for the burglary on December 11 last year, had his sentence halved to nine months. The additional two-month sentence for breaching bail remains, making a total of 11 months.

Mr Justice Owen said the court would not be justified in reducing Dare's sentence to the same level as Cuthbertson's

The appeal judge had described earlier how the suspicions of a gamekeeper and a woman leaving home to attend a school play had been aroused by the arrival in a car in the village of two men. "People do notice strangers in villages," said the judge.

The gamekeeper noted the car's registration number and when the car was later stopped by police, stolen property valued at £600 was recovered.

Dare blamed his two failures to attend court on excessive drug-taking.

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