Brandon Woolveridge was let out of prison under the government’s early release scheme

A man who was let out of prison under the government’s early release scheme, after being jailed for blackmailing people over their missing pets, went on to blackmail one of his previous victims within a fortnight of being freed.

Brandon Woolveridge, 25, had been jailed for 42 months at Preston crown court in October last year. On Friday, he was jailed for 27 months at the same court for what judge Heather Lloyd described as offence with an “identical modus operandi”.