Express & Star

JAILED: Serial mugger attacked woman outside Wolverhampton train station

Published
Last updated

A Polish immigrant who tried to rob a woman and break into vehicles outside Wolverhampton railway station has been locked up for three years and two months.

more

Adrian Anderski's crime spree started on the evening of March 20 after he and two other young men got off a train and immediately began trying to open cars parked nearby, the city's Crown Court was told.

The 20-year-old – with nine previous offences committed since November – and his colleagues then dragged a woman to the ground face first as she bravely clung on to her bag when he unsuccessfully tried to snatch it from her shoulder while she was heading for work from the staff car park, said Mr David Bennett, prosecuting.

The victim – left shaken after the gang fled empty handed – was taken to New Cross Hospital with facial cuts and bruises along with a chipped tooth and sore right shoulder

Early the next morning Anderski broke into a locked Network Rail van at the station and escaped with a haul that included bags, flares, florescent jackets and an electric drill.

CCTV cameras showed him and the other two offenders trying car door handles in the area. The stolen property was later found at his home.

Less than four hours after the theft Mr Rakesh Kumar was confronted by three men in Oxford Street, Bilston and forced to hand over £15 cash, bank cards and a mobile phone. He had been stabbed during a robbery 10 years earlier and feared that they were armed, the court heard.

Anderski then tried – and failed – to sell the phone at the West Bromwich branch of Cash Converters using his own ID card but checks by the store staff revealed it had been stolen and police were alerted.

The crook's details were circulated on the police national computer and he was arrested in Ilford on March 26.

Mr Kumar later identified him as the man who had robbed him.

Mr Simon Hanns, defending, said: "This man has built up a pattern of escalating offences from nothing in a matter of months.

"It has been foolish offending."

Anderski from Wellington Road, Tipton admitted robbery, attempted robbery and theft and was ordered to be detained in a Young Offenders Institution.

He will have to face deportation on release.

Judge John Wait said: "When you first committed an offence in November last year you told the court that you were desperate, felt embarrassed and there was no risk of a repeat.

"Within a matter of days you were driving unlawfully and within a few more weeks driving while disqualified.

"Then within three weeks of that you and others were out on an expedition to commit crime while targeting lone people.

"You were not embarrassed or desperate – just dishonest."

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.