A ROBBER has been jailed for nine years after stealing from two homes in the Wrexham area.

Danny Evans, 24 of Clayton Road, Pentre Broughton had denied robbing Nicholas John Lowe of his wallet at his camper van home in woods at Llandegla. But he was convicted at an earlier hearing.

Mold Crown Court was told that while on bail for that offence he burgled the home of 81-year-old woman, pushing past her and demanding money.

He fled when she pressed her care call alarm and her elderly husband bravely gave chase, said prosecutor Karl Scholz, but Evans got away.

Judge Mr Recorder Ander Keyser QC gave Evans six years for the robbery on Mr

Lowe and a consecutive three-year sentence for burglary at the home of Dorothy
Challinor.

The court was told Mr Lowe had been punched repeatedly, and Evans had conceded in his pre-sentence report that he had struck him 10 times.

The court was told Mr Lowe had lived in the woods off the A525 Ruthin to Wrexham Road for about 17 years.

For some months before the day of the attack he had allowed a man, Richard Hughes to live in another camper van on the same site.

On September 28 last year Mr Hughes was undergoing a detoxification programme at Wrexham Maelor Hospital and Mr Lowe was living alone.

At about 8.30pm three men called at the camper van asking for Mr Hughes.

He recognised one of them, they had two large bottles of cider and they said they were there to celebrate his birthday with him.

The three joined him inside the camper van and it was alleged that two of the men used false names,

After about 20 minutes they went out to go to the toilet.

But on their return, without warning, they both began to attack Mr Lowe, said Mr Scholz.

David Potter, defending said Mr Lowe had the following day been attacked by another man and suffered much more serious injuries.

It had not been the intention to rob Mr Lowe initially, he told the court.

But a decision had clearly been made, and it was his client’s case that another man started it and that he had joined in. He had been convicted on a joint enterprise basis.

Mr Potter said Evans had no recollection of events which led to the burglary.