A SERIAL robber who was handed a potentially lifelong jail term for a �40,000 motorbike raid on a lone security guard has had his sentence overturned on appeal.

Jay McGinty, 22, of Highbury New Park, Highbury, was put behind bars indefinitely for public protection (IPP) at Blackfriars Crown Court last June after admitting robbery and more than 20 burglaries across Camden and Islington.

The IPP sentence is almost identical to a life term and meant McGinty would not be freed until the Parole Board was convinced he no longer posed a danger to the public.

But this week Mr Justice Spencer accepted that the “risk” McGinty poses could be dealt with by a lighter sentence considering his youth, and substituted a conventional ten-year prison term, of which he will serve half.

After his release, McGinty will serve five years on “extended licence”, during which he will be closely monitored in the community and at risk of being recalled to prison if he puts a foot wrong.

Mr Justice Spencer said McGinty and his accomplice Scott McFazdean used a stolen high-powered motorbike “like a weapon”, speeding towards the stunned security guard as he collected a cash box from a Halifax ATM in The Brunswick Centre, Bloomsbury, last March.

The judge, sitting in London’s Appeal Court with Lord Justice Richards and Mr Justice Bean, said McGinty, who was riding pillion, shouted at the security guard, David Lloyd, to drop the box, which he did.

McGinty retrieved the box and the pair sped off, but they lost control of the bike and careered into a low fountain wall.

McFazdean was detained by a member of the public at the scene, but McGinty was arrested after he admitted himself to hospital with an arm injury.

McGinty pleaded guilty to robbery, possession of a firearm, possession of ammunition, aggravated vehicle taking, dangerous driving and burglary. He asked for another four cash-in-transit robberies and another 29 burglaries to be taken into consideration.

Following the original sentencing, Detective Sergeant Rhys Willis, of the Flying Squad, said; “McGinty and McFazdean were a menace to the communities of Camden and Islington. Their arrests and subsequent convictions should serve as a lesson to others who turn to this type of crime as a way of getting quick cash.”