A THIEF who took a blind shopper's purse on Christmas Eve has failed in an Appeal Court bid to cut in his jail term.

Serbian-born Stevan Jovanovic, 35, of Travis Street, Burnley, was jailed for three years four months by Burnley Crown Court in March after admitting four thefts and one burglary.

And Mr Justice Moses, sitting with Mr Justice Royce at London's Court of Appeal, dismissed arguments the term imposed was too long - saying the thief had set out to target "vulnerable" people.

The judge said Jovanovic and an accomplice first struck in early December last year when they pushed and shoved a 74-year-old woman near an Asda supermarket before making off with her handbag.

The pair then committed two similar offences in the space of a few days - on one occasion targeting an 81-year-old as she shopped for groceries.

Jovanovic rounded off his festive-period crime-spree with a "despicable" theft from a blind woman in the Burnley branch of Sainsbury's.

Lawyers on his behalf argued the "totality" of the sentence handed out to the Serb was simply too long for the crimes he committed.

Refusing to cur the jail term, Mr Justice Moses said the offences were "quite deliberately committed against those who require the protection of the law".

He added: "In those circumstances, we think the total sentence was merited and was far from being manifestly excessive."