Judges refuse to increase sentences for blackmail

AN appeal to increase the prison sentences of two menconvicted of conspiracy to blackmail a Bath restaurateur has failed.

Counsel for the Attorney General told the Court ofAppeal that the 18-month jail terms imposed at Bristol Crown Court last October on Robert Broadley and John Peyto were too lenient.

They had been convicted of plotting to blackmail Adrian Ware, a former convict whohad received a reduced prison term in 1991 after turning Crown witness against one of their friends.

Ware was running Chaplin's Bistro on Pulteney Bridge in Bath in 1997 when Broadley and Peyto turned up to collect £20,000 previously demanded by two other men as compensation.

Ware had told police about the demand and officers arrested Broadley and Peyto.

Three Court of Appeal judges refused to vary the sentences. The maximum sentence for the offence is 14 years.

Broadley and Peyto are to be released in May.