A robber who took part in a gang raid on a post office in Maidstone has had his jail term cut by more than a year.

Peter Taylor, 22, is serving seven years and 10 months for the robbery and a string of earlier offences, however judges at London’s Criminal Appeal Court ruled that the sentence was too harsh and cut it to six and a half years.

Taylor, of Queenborough Road, Halfway, took part in the raid on Grafty Green post office in Headcorn Road alongside Jack Hennessy and Keith Hodgson, of Pollyfield Close and Holborough Road, Snodland, in December 2013, making off with cigarettes worth £1,500 and a bottle of a vodka.

He was handed a three-year four-month jail term after pleading guilty to robbery at Maidstone Crown Court in June last year, which was ordered to run consecutively to a term of four years six months which he was serving for other offences.

At a hearing on Wednesday dec 14his lawyers asked Lord Justice Davis, Mr Justice Simon and Mr Justice Holgate, sitting at London’s Criminal Appeal Court, to reduce that sentence, arguing it was too long in total.

The court heard that postmistress, Rosemary Smith, was alone in the shop on the day of the raid but stoutly defied the robbers, forcing them to flee with a smaller haul.

While Hodgson and Hennessy had been involved in a string of other robberies, mainly targeting bookmakers shops, Taylor had only taken part in a single raid.

His lawyers pointed out that his accomplices were much older than him and he had made ‘frank confessions’ to police.

Mr Davis said that Taylor had an ‘extremely bad record’ despite his youth, however, he allowed the appeal stating that the current term was simply too long.