A MAN serving 12 years for robbing a pizza deliverer with a toy gun had his sentence slashed by four years at the Court of Appeal.

George Harvey, 37, of Boland Road, Bromley, was convicted of armed robbery at Croydon Crown Court, on September 8 last year.

The court heard how Harvey got the idea when he noticed a “considerable sum of money” in a delivery driver's wallet after ordering a pizza to his home, on February 17, last year.

Later that evening he ordered another pizza, this time from a flat in Downham.

When the delivery man arrived Harvey pulled out a toy gun and robbed the contents of the driver's wallet.

The victim later spotted Harvey in his car and took down his number plate. Harvey was arrested, on March 12 after a police car chase.

A judge in the original case said his initial 12-year sentence was “unavoidable” as the offence was committed six weeks after he had been released on licence from a seven-year sentence for armed robbery and indecent assault.

But the Appeal Court judges felt, despite Harvey's previous conviction, the 12-year sentence was “too long” and “the right sentence in our judgement is a sentence of eight years.”