A HOLMFIRTH man has had his jail sentence cut.
Peter Murcott was one of two conmen who targeted old women, while orchestrating a £5,000 home security scam.
Mark Long, 30, of Kings Crescent, Edlington, Doncaster, and Murcott, 43, of Back Lane, Holmfirth, were jailed for four and five years respectively at Doncaster Crown Court in June after they admitted conspiracy to defraud.
But Mr Justice Cresswell, sitting with Mr Justice Simon at London's Appeal Court, cut the jail terms of both men by a year - ruling the original sentences were "manifestly excessive".
The judge said the two men had previously been employed by a Yorkshire home alarm company, Murcott as a salesman and Long as an engineer.
After some time working together, the two men decided to set up their own company specialising in the same business. Initially, the judge said, the venture was a legitimate enterprise.
However, it was not long before the men began to target old women who Long identified from information he kept from his previous employers.
He and Murcott would then go to the elderly women's homes and take money from them for "overhauling" their current security equipment - all the time pretending they still represented their previous employers.
However, the judge said, the two conmen carried out "little or no work" after they received the money.
Sentencing the two men, the trial judge said they had "abused the trust" of their elderly victims.
Long was said to have benefited by £2,200 and Murcott by £3,200.
But lawyers for the two men argued the jail terms imposed were simply too long in view of their guilty pleas.
The ruling means Long's new sentence is three years and Murcott's four years.
