Phone snatcher jailed for targeting woman at railway station – West Midlands

A shameless phone snatcher who left two women on the floor in his desperate bid to escape has been jailed following a British Transport Police (BTP) investigation.

Yordan Popov, 39, of Newport Road, Cardiff, was jailed for three years and four months at Birmingham Crown Court on 21 September.

He pleaded guilty to Robbery and Actual Bodily Harm at an earlier hearing.

The court heard how, at around 5pm on Wednesday 27 May this year, Popov entered Birmingham New Street railway station and headed to the ticket barriers.

He then walked over to a woman who was tapping her phone to pass through the barrier. He grabbed the phone, worth around £1,700, with such force that as the victim grappled to try and keep the phone, she fell to the floor and injured her leg.

Popov, pursued by a member of the public, then ran back through the station, pushing through a crowd of people at the exit before getting away.

As he did so, he ran into a woman in her 70s who fell to the ground and sustained a head injury that required three stitches.

The robbery was reported to police, and BTP detectives immediately launched an investigation. Popov was quickly identified through CCTV and circulated as wanted.

On 10 July, his vehicle was spotted in the Erdington area of Birmingham by West Midlands Police officers, and he was pulled over and arrested.

Detectives submitted a file of evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) resulting in both charges being authorised against Popov the following day.

BTP Detective Sergeant Daniel Hart said: “Popov is a coward who targeted a woman and initially refused to accept any responsibility for his shameful actions, even when he was shown CCTV of him brazenly committing the robbery.

“He also showed absolutely no care for the elderly woman he left on the floor in his wake, and he'll now serve an adequately long term behind bars for his crimes.

"We have teams working across the railway every day to deter and detect robbery, deploying in plain clothes and uniform to catch offenders and secure justice for victims, just as we did in this case.

"Every report of robbery is taken extremely seriously, and I urge anyone who is the victim of, or witness to, this offending to report it to us by texting 61016."