A mugger with 40 previous convictions has been jailed for almost five years after dragging a frail woman pensioner down a street “like a dog” as she battled to hang on to her cash.
Vicious heroin addict Kevin Treen, aged 42, struck just weeks after magistrates gave him a last chance to prove that he could go straight and stay out of trouble.
Treen watched his 64-year-old victim withdraw £350 cash from the Tipton and Coseley Building Society branch in Bilston.
Then he tailed her round the shops before pouncing near the Morrisons supermarket, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard yesterday. He sent the recently retired school cleaner crashing to the pavement and snatched her bag, said prosecutor Julian Elcock who continued:
“She held on and told him to stop but he dragged her along the ground for about four yards before running off with the bag and its contents.
“A witness at first thought Treen was pulling a dog. He gave chase after realising what was really going on and detained the offender with the help of other members of the public.”
The mugger – who had earlier stolen bars of chocolate from a nearby shop – initially denied the offences but finally admitted what he had done in a second interview with police. His victim was left bruised and shaken.
Treen, the father of a young daughter, has 29 previous convictions for burglary and attempted burglary, two for aggravated burglary, 11 for shoplifting and theft and one for assault. He has been jailed several times.
He had been given a deferred sentence by Walsall Magistrates less than two months before the March 26 mugging following his conviction for burgling lead from a Willenhall demolition site last October.
John Evans, defending, said: “He has been involved with drugs for several years and has accumulated a very substantial record but has no previous convictions for robbery _ although that is no consolation to his victim.”
Treen, from Livingstone Road, Bilston, admitted robbery and theft and was jailed for four years with a further nine months added to that sentence for the denied Willenhall burglary.
8 Comments
PITY HE WASN’T IN IRAN.
My late mother was the victim of just such an attack… for £5.00.
This creep should be locked up forever. Throw the key away and WHY oh WHY was he given “another chance”?
What kind of imbeciles populate the benches in our courts?
” magistrates gave him a last chance to prove that he could go straight and stay out of trouble”…. WHAT!!!!!! 40 Previous!!!!!!!!!!
It’s the Magistrates fault this poor pensioner was atacked. The NUMBSCULL magistrate should go and apologise to the pensioner, thats the least they could do, other than be thrown off the bench.
Few lashes of the birch too - if only.
Prison is no deterent for scum like this. He gets free food, free TV and get fattened up before terrorising the streets again to feed his low life drug habit.
Give him a khaki uniform and a gun and send him to the front line in Iraq.
HE WILL GET WHATS COMING TO HIM WHEN HE GOES INSIDE
Brand him across his forehead..THIEF, WOMAN BEATER,SCUM.
Then see how he survives in the world when people know what he is and whats hes done!
I WOULD BE A SHAMED OF MYSELF IF I WAS HIM.MAYBE HE WILL GET WHAT HE DESERVES IF HE MAKES IT TO WINSON GREEN PRISON BUT THE LIFE OF RIELY SPRINGS TO MIND IT WOULD BE DIFFERENT MATTER BEING ONE OF HIS OWN FAMILY ITS PITY ON HIS CHILD KNOWING HER FATHER IS A BAG SNATCHER LET ALONE DRUG ABUSER THEE STRIKES AND OUT DONT DO MUCH FOR LEGAL SYSTEM IN THIS COUNTRY