Thug jailed for robbing man of £15

Oldham man Neil Bennett was jailed for more than two years yesterday after he admitted robbing a man of £15 and his mobile phone on a Gloucester street.

Victim James McCue described being left feeling vulnerable and angry after Bennett robbed him on Claremont Street, Gloucester.

Bennett (45), of Lee Street, Oldham, took cash and a phone which Mr McCue had been given as a gift, Gloucester Crown Court heard.

Mr McCue said he was walking down the street to get a prescription from hospital on July 24, last year, when he was approached. Bennett said he knew Mr McCue from the day centre and asked him first for 20p, then £1 before starting to talk about the mobile phone.

Then Bennett grabbed him round the neck and pinned him to the floor by kneeling on him, said Derek Ryder, prosecuting. After the victim attempted to punch Bennett unsuccessfully, the defendant punched McCue in the face.

Bennett then searched Mr McCue’s pockets and took £15 and the phone and told him: “You’d better not grass me up,” as he left.

In a statement, Mr McCue said he felt vulnerable and weak and needed his phone to contact his daughter. Bennett had a previous conviction for robbery in 2002 for which he was jailed for three-and-a-half years.

Giles Nelson, defending, said Bennett had been drinking and had difficulty recalling the incident.

He added that Bennett had suffered with a heroin addiction in the past.

Sentencing Bennett to 28 months in prison, judge William Hart told him: “Your behaviour on that day was thuggish.”