A man caged for his part in a terrifying armed robbery at a family’s Huddersfield home saw his Appeal Court bid for an earlier release thrown out.

Jamal Benjamin, 26, was part of a gang of four men who raided a house in the Manchester Road area of Huddersfield in September 2013.

Weapons were produced and a gun put to the back of a young woman, while her pregnant mum worried about losing her baby.

Getaway driver Benjamin, of Laverhill, Hightown, then led police on a high-speed chase before he was finally caught up with in Quarmby, Huddersfield.

He admitted three robberies and dangerous driving and was jailed for 11 years and three months at Bradford Crown Court in January.

At the Court of Appeal, three senior judges said that term was richly deserved for such serious offences.

‘This was very serious offending, with many aggravating features,’ said Lady Justice Sharp.

‘It was a severe sentence, but we are unable to conclude that it was too long.’

The court heard the masked robbers, including Benjamin, broke into the detached house through a window.

They first ran into the pregnant mum, who was grabbed and thrown onto a sofa. She thought she was going to miscarry.

Police at the siege in Quarmby

The men then demanded to be told where the safe was, with the woman’s 18-year-old daughter threatened with a gun.

They left with only an elderly man’s watch and the contents of a handbag.

Before Benjamin was able to speed off in a rented Ford Focus, one of the householders noted the vehicle’s details and called police.

The West Yorkshire Police helicopter was scrambled and helped officers follow Benjamin as he drove at high speed, onto a pavement and the wrong way down a one-way road.

Lady Justice Sharp said it was a ‘miracle’ no one was killed before Benjamin finally abandoned the car at the Hebden Court flats in Chesil Bank. He was arrested there by armed police.

Appealing, his lawyers argued that his sentence was ‘simply too long’. He did not know a gun was being used.

But the judge, sitting with Mrs Justice Cox and Judge Jeffrey Pegden QC at London’s Criminal Appeal Court, disagreed.

‘This was a pre-planned robbery in which four men were involved, knowing there were people in the house who would have to be subdued or intimidated,’ she said.

‘There were three victims, each of whom was vulnerable.

‘It’s right no serious injury was inflicted, but nonetheless the mother and daughter were seriously traumatised.

‘The effect of this violent incident on them is long-term. Their freedom to enjoy their lives has been diminished.’