Robber’s jail-term appeal fails

An Oldham thug who robbed a woman as she walked with her seven-year-old son today failed in a Court of Appeal challenge to his potentially lifelong jail term.

Adrian Paul Hardaker (42), of Godson Street, was jailed indefinitely at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court in October, 2006, for robbery and theft.

Despite hearing of his “praiseworthy” attempts behind bars to change his life, three top judges rejected his challenge to the open-ended sentence yesterday.

Judge Gerald Gordon, sitting with Lord Justice Toulson and Mr Justice Royce, said that, although Hardaker had done well while inside, the sentence was correct at the time it was passed.

Hardaker already had a string of convictions to his name when he and another man robbed Nawarun Bibi as she walked towards Tesco in Westwood on the afternoon of December 30, 2005.

They accosted the mum and wrenched her bag from her, before running off and using her bank cards to withdraw £340 from a cash machine.

Hardaker was arrested two weeks later and, although he initially denied the offences, he admitted what he did after seeing the incident on CCTV.

His previous convictions included robberies in 1986, 1995 and 2000 and three counts of possessing offensive weapons dating back to 1989. His lawyers argued that there was not enough evidence for the crown court judge to conclude that Hardaker posed a significant risk of serious harm to the public.

But Judge Gordon said: “Where there are a total of four robberies committed in order to feed a drug habit, the offending cannot be described as at a relatively low level.”

Hardaker will remain behind bars until the Parole Board considers he is safe to be returned to the community.