Dim-witted thief faces jail

DIM-witted Ipswich thief Leon Bolsover today faces jail after being part of a gang which tried to buy alcohol with the foreign currency they had stolen from a man just minutes earlier.

The victim, Mohammed Miah, was in Gippeswyk Park, in Ipswich, at around 4.30pm on July 9 last year when he was approached by a ten-strong group of white men.

In an attack which was claimed to have a racial element to it, Mr Miah was hit in the back of the head and kicked when he fell to the ground.

The gang made off with his wallet, which contained around £60 sterling, 1200 Bangladeshi taka and a five Dubai dirham note.

Just half an hour later and only a few hundreds away, a man, believed to be Bolsover, tried to spend the foreign currency at the Station Hotel, opposite Ipswich train station.

Prosecuting at Ipswich Crown Court, Jamie Sawyer said: “An employee at the Station Hotel describes a man wearing two gold sovereign rings attempt to buy alcohol at about 5pm. He produced a foreign note and was refused.

“The group moved on and the employee later found in a bin outside some foreign currency and a note from the United Arab Emirates.”

Bolsover, 22, of Sheldrake Drive, was arrested on a London-bound train from Ipswich station along with several other men.

He was found to be wearing two gold sovereign rings and was later picked out in an identity parade by Mr Miah.

Bolsover originally denied the offence, but made a last-minute guilty plea to a charge of assault with intent to rob at Ipswich Crown Court yesterday just before he was due to face trial.

Judge Roderick Newton said it was alleged there was a “racial element” to the assault, which had left Mr Miah mentally scarred.

He said: “Bolsover and a number of others attacked the victim with some degree of force. It was a mugging in a public place and they were endeavouring to spend the proceeds of their robbery.”

Bolsover, who at one point in his teens appeared in court nine times in 11 months, has one other conviction of robbery.

However, David Wilson, mitigating, said he had become a father not long after this incident and was now more stable.

Judge Newton warned Bolsover that he would face between 20 to 30 months in prison depending on the outcome of pre-sentence reports and further evidence from the victim.

He said: “The defendant is a young man and has got a very poor past indeed. It is inevitable that I will ask for a sentence of custody.”

Bolsover was granted conditional bail until a sentencing hearing due on June 26. He must report to Ipswich police station twice a week and was told not to contact any witnesses.