Teenage gang jailed for stealing mobile phones from women across Wandsworth

Walid Hnida

The five young criminals used a stolen scooter to commit 46 offences over an 11-day period, last year.

They largely targeted women, even a heavily pregnant woman, and on at least eight occasions used force to make people give up their mobile phones.

Today four of them were sentenced at Kingston Crown Court for conspiracy to commit robbery from September 21 to October 3.

Battersea youngsters Walid Hnida, 18, got three years and four months and Michael Ahmed, 20, was sentenced to four years and eight months.

Courtney Morgan, 19, received two years imprisonment and Deandre Riley-Reid, 16, received a Youth Rehabilitation Order for Conspiracy to steal.

A fifth youngster Jerome Ashley Williams, 17, will be sentenced on Wednesday, May 28, at the same court.

All of the men previously pleaded guilty to the offences in March 2014.

The team of robbers operated across Wandsworth, but also Lambeth, Richmond upon Thames and Hammersmith and Fulham.

One woman was punched in the face and another was dragged along the pavement as she tried to keep hold of her phone which was eventually stolen.

Another woman was pulled onto the hot exhaust of the bike and her leg was so badly burnt she needed hospital treatment.

Detective Superintendent Penny Banham said: "In total, Wandsworth CID solved 58 individual offences of street robbery linked solely to this criminal network whose crime spree came to a complete halt following a phenomenally fast and detailed investigation. The value of the handsets stolen from across the four London Boroughs stands at £120,000.”

Courtney Morgan

 Deandre Riley-Reid