Thug in violent raid on family gets jail increase

A violent raider who terrorised a family in their own home has had his sentence almost doubled.

Adam Ziolkowski, aged 39, of West Bromwich, was among a gang of thugs who preyed on Jagdish Chander and his wife Parveen Lata.

The incident happened at their Handsworth home after midnight in July last year. Ziolkowski and an accomplice forced Mr Chander to take the gang to his house, London's Appeal Court heard.

Inside, they ransacked the property, demanding bank cards and pin numbers.

Mrs Lata, whose son was with her, woke to see one of the raiders rifling through her coat. When she tried to call the police, the gang's ringleader yelled "give me the money" and held a knife towards her stomach.

Ziolkowski, of Burlington Road, also brandished a knife at Mrs Lata and threatened her with dire consequences if she gave out a false pin number for her bank card.

However, the family fought back, Lord Justice Pitchford told the Appeal Court.

One of the couple's daughters rounded on the gang's leader, who was also confronted by Mr Chander with a vacuum cleaner.

The ringleader was "detained by the family" shortly before the police arrived, although Ziolkowski escaped through the back door. Ziolkowski was jailed for three and a half years after pleading guilty at Birmingham Crown Court in June to robbery and burglary.

At the Appeal Court yesterday, lawyers for the Attorney General, Dominic Grieve QC, urged three judges to increase his "unduly lenient" sentence.

Lord Justice Pitchford, sitting with Mr Justice Wilkie and Mr Justice Holroyde, said Ziolkowski had been an "enthusiastic if not willing joint participant" in the violence once inside the house, although he had not played a leading role in the early stage of the offences.

Giving some credit for the guilty plea, it is our view that the appropriate sentence is now six years," the judge added.