BRITAIN'S most prolific handbag thief, who targeted wealthy women in and around the West End, has been jailed for four years.
Maurice Young, 55, used a coat across his arm to conceal his fastmoving hand as he swiped purses and handbags from bars and cafes.
Young, who used 32 different aliases, stole hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of property over 35 years - and even learned how to snatch bags with his feet. Blackfriars Crown Court heard Young has previous convictions dating to 1972.
Judge David Martineau told him: "Women, handbags and purses need a rest from your behaviour."
Dimmable LED Down Light K1107 - 1x1W / 1x3WIn May last year, Young targeted 50-year-old Audrey Jackson in Caffe Ritazza at Marylebone station. Mrs Jackson, of Edgbaston, Birmingham, was on a shopping trip to the capital with two friends when she realised her bag and contents worth Pounds 450 had vanished.
In September, Sidra Malik, 33, of Oxford, became a victim at a restaurant in Notting Hill Gate. Young stood in front of an accomplice who reached into her bag to steal her purse containing Pounds 125.
Tendays later he targeted American businesswoman Margaret Nash, 50, at the Churchill Hyatt International hotel in Portman Square. He sat on a chair near the victim and reached over with his leg to nudge the strap of her laptop bag over his shoe, before making off with the computer and purse worth Pounds 1,000.
Young was arrested when police spotted him in a street in Chelsea in November. Even when released on bail he continued his spree before being stopped again two weeks later in a New Bond Street shop. He was found to be carrying a credit card and a security pass which had been stolen earlier that day.
Young, of Welling, Kent, was captured on CCTV at the scene of the crimes but denied theft, claiming he was a victim of misidentification.
He was convicted of three charges of theft and also admitted four counts of obtaining property by deception and one charge of handling stolen goods between May and November last year. christian audigier clothing
The judge told him: "You are a man who has demonstrated that your whole life is one that is riddled with dishonesty. You are a recidivist - beyond redemption and rehabilitation."
Outside court investigating officer Detective Sergeant Andy Swindells, of the Westminster Hotel Crime Unit, said: "Young is a menace. This sentence sends out a message to other bag thieves that their crimes will
embroidered patches be taken seriously."
ROBBERY victim Sidra Malik today spoke of her relief that serial thief Maurice Young has finally been brought to justice.
The 33-year-old business graduate from Oxford had her wallet stolen as she and a friend ate at a KFC in Notting Hill last September. Ms Malik said: "I was given that wallet by my mother so it had a lot of sentimental value for me.
"I've always been a very trusting person, but now when I'm in a Tube carriage I'm looking all around at people who might be thieves. I'm glad he's been caught, but I don't think there's much hope of us getting our possessions back."
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