A soldier who committed a string of robberies and attempted robberies across south London has had his prison sentence reduced by three years.

Dillon Sharpe was serving in the Grenadier Guards when he committed a series of robberies and attempted robberies, threatening late-night convenience shop workers with an imitation handgun.

Sharpe, who served for six months in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, admitted the string of offences in south and south-west London in 2018 and 2019 and was sentenced to 13-and-a-half years in prison earlier this year.

The punishment - originally passed at Kingston Crown Court in March 2020 - was reduced to 10-and-a-half years at a High Court hearing on Friday in front of Lord Justice Sir David Bean, Justice Robin Knowles and Judge David Aubrey QC.

He initially committed four crimes on his own around the Tulse Hill area of south London in February 2018.

Five months later, there was a spree of attacks around Kingston and Croydon with two accomplices, threatening convenience store staff and robbing shops.

In January 2019, he committed a similar offence in Brixton with a different accomplice.

Judge Aubrey said the nature of the crimes had meant the initial judgment was "an extremely difficult sentencing exercise".

Recognising the length of time the sprees were committed over and the fact that "many of the shopkeepers feared for their lives", Judge Aubrey concluded: "The just and proportionate total sentence would have been a sentence of 10-and-a-half years."

Sharpe, from Dulwich, south London, was represented by defence barrister Michael Forward.