Jailed: Wolverhampton thug who beat up passer-by over cigarette

Andre Nash carried out the attack in Jameson Street, Whitmore Reans on August 11, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

Mr Paul Spratt, prosecuting, said the 33-year-old accosted Habib Sharif in the street at around 10.30pm and asked him for a cigarette.

When Mr Sharif refused, the defendant punched him in the mouth with a right hook that sent him tumbling onto the ground, the court was told.

"Nash punched him twice in the head and kicked him twice in the back," continued Mr Spratt.

"During the attack a total of £63 fell out of the victim's pocket which the defendant took and walked off with."

Mr Sharif, who had been on his way to a shop to buy credit for his mobile phone when he was assaulted, suffered a swollen bottom lip, numerous cuts and grazes and soreness to his jaw and the back of his head, added Mr Spratt.

The court heard that unemployed Nash was arrested 10 days after the incident and admitted to police that the attack was unprovoked. Mr Spratt said the defendant had a 'significant' criminal record involving five convictions for robbery.

Mr Jasvir Mann, defending, said Nash had carried out the attack because he had 'perceived an attitude' in his victim when he asked him for a cigarette.

"It may have been a misapprehension on his part," he added. "As a result he admits to behaving very badly. The violence was not meted out in order to steal."

Nash, of Bassett Close, Willenhall, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and theft.

Sentencing him to a total of three years behind bars, Judge Martin Walsh said: "This was an attack on an innocent person who was simply going to make an acquisition from a shop.

"The incident is perilously close to being classed as a robbery."

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