Lyon Dunn and Philip Byrne have both been jailed for a series of offences in Gateshead
Philip Byrne (L) and Lyon Dunn
A vulnerable elderly couple were fleeced and burgled in a “cruel, callous and cowardly” gardening scam. Newcastle Crown Court heard that in June 2023, Lyon Dunn knocked on the door of an elderly couple in Chopwell, Gateshead, offering to do some gardening work.
He said it would cost £40 and told them he would have to be paid in advance. The court heard the man was vulnerable having suffered a stroke and his wife, who has since died, was bed-bound at the time.
Dunn, who was disqualified from driving, drove the man to a cashpoint to withdraw the cash and was given an extra £10 to get some shopping and take him home. On June 13, Dunn attended the victims’ home again and asked for a further £30, saying he needed it because his strimmer had broken. The victim again took him to take out the cash.
The next day, Dunn was back again, saying he needed a further £30 to repair the strimmer and he was taken to a cashpoint again. Then on June 21, Dunn attended once more, this time with Philip Byrne, and a further £60 was demanded to do the gardening work.
There was some limited gardening work carried out but the victim told them he couldn’t get the cash they asked for.
Lyon Dunn, jailed for burglary and fraud(Image: Northumbria Police)
He was then told he would have to give them something of value to make up for it and they entered his home without permission and Byrne stole his TV off the wall and they left with it.
A neighbour had become suspicious about what they were up to and took a photograph which helped to identify Dunn. Byrne was subsequently as having been involved in the last visit.
Byrne, 24, of Blyth Street, Chopwell and Dunn, 34, of Fontwell Drive, Gateshead, admitted burgling the couple and Dunn also admitted fraud and driving while disqualified.
Philip Byrne, jailed for aggravated burglaries and burglary(Image: Northumbria Police)
Sentencing them, Recorder Geraldine Kelly said the offences were “cruel, callous and cowardly”, adding: “What you did was target vulnerable, elderly victims.
“This was very much picking on a vulnerable person who you recognised couldn’t do anything to stop you. He had suffered a stroke and felt powerless to stop you.
“He feels he overpaid for the gardening work and you took advantage of him. Of course you did and you know you did.”
Byrne was also involved in terrifying offences of aggravated burglary while on bail for the burglary. A man was asleep in bed in Birtley, Gateshead, around 6am on August 1 last year when he awoke to find two men in his home.
One of them, armed with a crowbar, went into his bedroom and told him to stay there. The victim bravely got up and wrestled the weapon from him.
The raiders were shouting demanded drugs and cash, threw bits of a broken bottle at him and smashed a garage window before fleeing. The man then noticed they had smashed his back door to gain entry. He suffered pain to his right hand from the struggle.
There was then a second attack on the same home some weeks later, when three or four men turned up, one armed with a machete and another with a crowbar. The victim attacked the man with a machete.
Three days later, another man, who lives in Gateshead, was also attacked by Byrne, who turned up demanding drugs and money and squirted him in the face with what he believed to be ammonia and some men tried to force entry, with a window being smashed with a shopping trolley.
The victim’s partner told them she was pregnant to get them to stop. The victim was taken to hospital and said he thought he was going to die.
Byrne pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated burglary and one of attempted aggravated burglary. Recorder Kelly said: “This was serious, violent, repeated offending.”
For all of the offences, Byrne was jailed for six years and Dunn got three years.
The court heard Byrne had a “very difficult” childhood and became addicted to drugs and was “not the prime mover” in relation to the aggravated burglary offences. The court heard Dunn’s behaviour had declined as a result of using cocaine and he had received some upsetting personal news.