Man jailed for robbing cash from elderly victim at Worcester Travelodge hotel room

Daniel Joseph appeared on videolink from HMP Stoke Heath to Worcester Crown Court for his sentencing on Tuesday, (September 13). 

Prosecutor John Brotherton told the court the 46-year-old had been involved in a joint enterprise robbery of victim Melvyn Vaughn, who was injured by his co-defendant.

COURT: Daniel Joseph, pictured in 2019. Picture: James Connell/Newsquest (Image: James Connell/Newsquest)

Mr Brotherton told the court the robbery took place at a hotel room at the Travelodge in Cathedral Plaza, where the victim had been living at the time.

Mr Brotherton said Joseph, with another man, stole cash and personal items from the defendant during the robbery on June 12, 2021. 

He added he could not read out a victim personal statement from the victim, as Mr Vaughn had died since the incident and not given one. 

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Judith Kenney, defending Joseph, said on the day her client had "no intention" of being involved in a crime but after drinking was persuaded to by the co-accused. 

Mrs Kenney said the dad-of-two had gone along with it thinking he would be involved in theft - the basis of his guilty plea which was accepted by the crown. 

She added: "He knew nothing about it.

COURT: Daniel Joseph appeared on videolink to Worcester Crown Court

"There is no doubt he must have been taken along by the co-defendant as a 'bit of muscle'."

Mrs Kenney added her client, a dad-of-two, had a criminal record but had no history of robbery.

Sentencing Joseph, formerly of Gamekeepers Drive, Brickfields, Worcester, Judge Nicholas Cole said: "There is no personal statement, but it is clear it would have been a terrifying incident (for the victim).

"You knew you were going there to steal. 

"It was in a hotel room Mr Vaughn was entitled to feel safe in."

Daniel Joseph was already serving a jail sentence for ABH

Joseph, who had 27 convictions for 47 offences, was jailed for 30 months, the judge saying custody was the only "just and proportionate" sentence. 

The judge said the sentence would run concurrently with a 16-month prison sentence Joseph is already serving for assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Daniel Joseph appeared in the Worcester News last year in a case where he punched a neighbour several times in the face and threw a bike at him, following a row over noise.

Joseph was given a 12-month community order, which included a curfew, by magistrates on that occasion.