TWO vicious burglars who unwittingly handed themselves in to police after being tricked by a quick-witted officer have had their jail terms cut on appeal by senior judges.

Jason Paul Masters, 25, and Shaun Robert Bennett, 28, spotted a crop of cannabis growing while carrying out the violent burglary of a man’s house, and wanted a share of the stash.

When they received a call on a mobile phone they had stolen from the house, both men agreed to meet the caller and discuss a taking a share of the drugs.

But they were arrested – because the caller was in fact a police officer carrying out a “spontaneous sting”.

Masters, of Prescott Street, and Bennett, of Grange Road, both Darlington, each admitted burglary and aggravated burglary at Teesside Crown Court in January.

Masters, known as Woodbridge, also pleaded guilty to possession of an offensive weapon, and was sentenced to eight-anda- quarter years in jail, while Bennett was jailed for seven-and-ahalf years.

Lord Justice Stanley Burnton, Mr Justice Maddison and Judge Anthony Russell, sitting at London’s Criminal Appeal Court, quashed those sentences, reducing each by a year.

The court heard the pair fled with electrical items from a burglary in Darlington, but returned minutes later with Masters having armed himself with a metal baton.

The pair wanted the cannabis and the householder was repeatedly hit with the weapon, but pushed the pair out of the door and alerted police.

His mobile phone – taken during the first raid – was called by the officer and the burglars answered, assuming it was their victim. They were then lured to their arrest by the quick-thinking officer.

Allowing their appeals, Lord Justice Burnton said while the sentencing judge was entitled to treat these offences as very serious, they concluded he took too high a starting point and that justice would be done if each sentence were to be reduced by a year.

Bennett, who has 88 previous offences on his record, had his term cut to six-and-half-years and Masters, who also has previous convictions for burglary, to seven-and-a-quarter.