A PROLIFIC burglar who stole more than £20,000 in the York area has had his sentence cut by 20 months after a judge got his dates mixed up.

Christopher Wilson, 38, was on parole after being released part-way through a 45-month sentence for house raids when he began his one-man crime wave. He broke into 20 homes and buildings in two months, York Crown Court heard last year.

But his freedom ended when a 17-year-old girl surprised him as he prepared to leave her home with his arms full of loot and called police. Wilson then confessed to all the other raids. Recorder Alan Hepworth QC said he should finish the remaining 20 months of the 45-month sentence, and gave him an extra 42 months for the new offences. He intended the burglar should serve five years and two months in jail.

Wilson, of Lower Ebor Street, York, admitted three burglaries and asked for 18 more to be taken into consideration. He appealed against the sentence on the grounds that the judge’s sentence was “unlawful” and three appeal court judges agreed.

Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith told the Court of Appeal Criminal Division the offences for which Wilson got 45 months for had taken place so long ago, different sentencing rules had been in force.

That meant that although he had only served part of the 45-month sentence and had been on parole at the time of the 20-burglary crime wave, the York judge did not have the power to make him finish the unserved part of the sentence.

Judge Loraine-Smith, together with appeal court judges Lord Justice Goldring and Mr Justice Wilkie cut 20 months from the sentence passed last year, meaning Wilson will now serve three-and-a- half years.