Teenager jailed after robbing man’s gold necklace – London

A teenager who followed a man off of a train and robbed him of his gold necklace has been jailed, following a British Transport Police (BTP) investigation.

Mamadou Bah, 19 (8/11/2006), and of no fixed address, was sentenced at Warwick Crown Court on Thursday 27 August to three years' imprisonment having pleaded guilty to Robbery at an earlier hearing.

The court heard how just before 4.30am on Saturday 20 December last year, Bah was on a Central Line train when he noticed another man asleep in the carriage, spotting his gold chain necklace.

As the man woke up and got off the train at Chancery Lane Underground station, Bah followed him.

He then grabbed the man's collar from behind, trying to tear the gold necklace off his neck.

Bah was repelled by the victim, but he eventually managed to pull the gold chain off his neck, breaking the clasp in the process.

The victim refused to let Bah leave, and restrained him near the station’s escalators.

A few minutes later, station staff attended and contacted BTP. Officers deployed to the station and separated the pair before searching Bah.

He was found to have two gold chains, including the one he took from the victim. The chain was then promptly returned to the victim, and Bah was arrested and taken to custody.

When interviewed by police, Bah claimed that he was fighting with the victim in self-defence. However, when shown footage of himself grabbing the chain from the victim, Bah remained silent and refused to answer any further questions.

He was later charged before pleading guilty in July this year.

BTP Detective Constable Annika Liparoti said: "I'm very pleased with the result in this case. Bah thought that he had spotted an easy pay day, but he will instead enjoy an extended stay behind bars as a consequence of this actions.

"Our officers work tirelessly across the railway network throughout the year to detect and deter robbery offences, utilising plain clothes assets in combination with uniformed patrols to catch offenders and secure justice for victims as we did in this case.

"We take every report of robbery extremely seriously, and I urge anyone who is the victim of or witness to a robbery to report it to us by texting 61016 or by speaking to a member of staff. We'll do everything that we can to secure justice for you, as we did for the victim in this case."