NOEL: PICKPOCKET JAILED TO STOP HIM ATTENDING THE OLYMPICS
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Blackfriars Crown Court/Jo Parkes
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22 August 2011
with CCTV pic of Noel in action
olympian…1
An ‘Olympic’ pickpocket has been jailed for three years in an attempt to stop him blighting the games.
Steve Noel, 44, who has 67 theft convictions spanning three decades, was out preying on Tube passengers again – just five days after his release from his previous spell behind bars.
He is such a menace he is banned from the Circle Line but he begged to be given a last chance.
But Judge Peter Clarke QC shunned his promise to reform and said: ‘I just don’t know how to protect the public from you.
‘We have the prospect of you being on the streets during the Olympics.
You’re going to have a field day and you’re going to ruin people’s visit to this country.
‘You are a pickpocket of Olympic capacity.’
Glenn Carrasco, prosecuting, said Noel was released from a two-and-a-half year jail sentence on April 19 and within a week was at it again, using a coat and a plastic bag to conceal his roving hand.
On April 24 he was captured on CCTV targeting two separate women in Camden Underground Station.
‘He goes behind Christine Comas as she goes through the ticket barriers and she feels someone bump into her,’ said the prosecutor.
‘She turns and sees the defendant turn away.
‘She then becomes aware that her shoulder bag has been half unzipped.
‘She gets on the Tube, realises her mobile phone and purse are missing.’
The library assistant complained to police and he is recognised on CCTV.
Within minutes of the last incident he delved into bar worker Corinne Stritter’s bag after hanging around at the bottom of the escalator.
The prosecutor said: ‘He appears to pretend as though he doesn’t know where to go before following Ms Stritter to the platform.
‘He walks behind her, puts a coat over his arm and also he is carrying a large white carrier bag as a shield.
‘She feels a tug of her shoulder bag and notices her iPod is dangling down.
‘She discovers her purse is missing but the doors have already closed by the time she realises this.’
The court heard on May 23 an elderly woman lost £140 cash and a silver cross from her bag to Noel at Baker Street Tube.
He was arrested on June 22.
Steven Cooke, defending, said Noel returned to his old ways so quickly because he had no accommodation or money.
‘He is not blaze about prison,’ said the barrister.
‘He has spent most of the last eight or nine years there and he says he is tired.
‘There was a gap in support and now there’s a house, now there’s money.’
Noels chipped in from the dock: ‘I’m asking for a chance, Your Honour.’
But the judge said he had probably been stealing on more occasions than he was caught.
Judge Clarke said: ‘The simple answer to that is ‘No’.
‘Because you don’t want to help yourself, you want to help yourself to other people’s property.
‘It takes you five days to reoffend.’
Noel, of Walnut Close, Lewisham, se London, admitted two thefts, and asked a like offence and a breach of his Antisocial Behaviour Order to be taken into consideration.
ends
