A MAN who denied committing a burglary with a friend has failed to convince judges that the jury should not have been told two men were involved.
London's Criminal Appeal Court said it would have been 'absurd' to exclude evidence about a witness having seen two males loading goods into a Jeep in Station Road, Winsford.
Karl Alexander Graham, 30, of Dart Walk, Winsford, was jailed for 30 months at Chester Crown Court last October after being found guilty of burglary. His co-accused who pleaded guilty to the burglary was jailed for 24 months.
Mr Justice Hunt, sitting with Lord Justice Rose and Mr Justice Crane, refused Graham permission to challenge his conviction.
Dismissing a claim the jury should not have been told a neighbour saw two men, he noted all she said was that two males were present.
The trial judge excluded evidence about her description of the two men because of breaches in identification procedures.
At about 6.45am on March 8 last year, the neighbour had been looking out of her Station Road bedroom window when she saw two men loading goods, including a TV, into a Suzuki Jeep. She thought they looked suspicious, so she took down the registration number and called the police.
At 7.15am, police went to Graham's home and arrested him. Property in his house and the Jeep - to which the coaccused had the keys - was identified as coming from the burglary. The neighbour made a witness statement setting out descriptions of the two men.
The trial judge agreed to a defence application that the neighbour's descriptions be excluded from the jury. But he ruled it would be a 'travesty' if the jurors were not told two men had been seen loading the jeep.
