The Case

Criminal law Appeal. The Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, dismissed a defendant's appeal against conviction and sentence following conviction for one count of making false representations and two counts of theft against two vulnerable elderly victims. The total sentence imposed was six years' imprisonment. The defendant had submitted that the judge had erred in allowing the cross-admissibility of the evidence relating to each count, had erred in his direction to the jury in respect of the admissibility of one of the victim's statements, and had erroneously allowed the evidence of a police officer to rebut claims of a conspiracy against him. Although the defendant found favour to some degree on some grounds, in the circumstances of the case over all, it was held that the conviction had not been rendered unsafe. Further, the sentence was deemed to be neither wrong in principle, nor manifestly excessive.